Executive Orders by President

Executive Orders by President

My neighbor brought up Executive Orders and said that President Obama had created WAY MORE than any other president. That’s the problem with getting your “news” from Fox or ultra right wing sites…they’re wrong. Find the facts, then quote them. If he had, he would have seen that President Obama had less than the right’s precious Reagan.  He still wears his Crooked Hillary hat.  Move on buddy, old/fake news.

 

In the first two weeks we have a slew of Executive Order/Actions from Trump that are against the values of our country.  Bannon and his hateful hands are behind a lot of these, and he snuck himself into the National Security Council.

Donald J. TrumpJanuary 20, 2017Executive Order 13765—Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal
Donald J. TrumpJanuary 24, 2017Executive Order 13766—Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals for High-Priority Infrastructure Projects
Donald J. TrumpJanuary 25, 2017Executive Order 13767—Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements
Donald J. TrumpJanuary 25, 2017Executive Order 13768—Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States
Donald J. TrumpJanuary 27, 2017Executive Order 13769—Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States
Donald J. TrumpJanuary 28, 2017Executive Order – Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees
Donald J. TrumpJanuary 30, 2017Executive Order – Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs
Donald J. TrumpFebruary 3, 2017Executive Order – Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php

 

The form, substance and numbers of presidential orders has varied dramatically in the history of the US Presidency.  Numbering of Executive Orders began in 1907 by the Department of State, which assigned numbers to all the orders then in their files dating from 1862 (Lord 1944, viii).  Through those efforts, the frequency of unnumbered orders declined sharply.  President Hoover attempted to bring further order and regularity to the processing and documenting of Executive orders (ibid). But it was not until the Federal Register Act in 1936 that a more thorough contemporaneous documentation of Executive Orders began.  Before then, and occasionally afterwards, a later discovery of another order has resulted in assigning a number already in use together with an associated letter (e.g., 7709, 7709-A).  This practice explains why the total number of orders issued may be greater than the result that would be obtained by subtracting a president’s first order number from his last (and adding 1). Today virtually all numbered Executive Orders are published.  However, the Federal Register Act specified that such orders need not be published if they had “no general applicability and legal effect.”  Thus, the text of some orders is not available. In addition to the numbered executive orders, there are many unnumbered orders (see Lord 1943).  The best known compilation includes “over 1500” unnumbered orders, but the editor notes that the true total is unknown.  Estimates have reportedly ranged as high as 50,000.  The editor, Lord, notes emphatically that “no distinction can be made between numbered and unnumbered Order on the basis of subject matter, general applicability, public interest, or legal effect.” There have always been many forms of Presidential orders in addition to the numbered Executive Orders and Executive Orders included in the published “unnumbered series”.  Currently, these commonly are called “Memorandums” but can have many titles.  Decades ago, such documents were commonly titled “Letters.” In this table we present the total number of Executive Orders issued by presidential term (not calendar year).  Thus, this table does not include other forms of written presidential orders (such as memorandums), or discretionary executive actions not accompanied by a published presidential directive. The table below is modified and updated from time to time.  This table includes our own original tallies for the first FDR term based on Lord (1943, 1944).  Our numbers still differ slightly from the numbers posted in the NARA Executive Order Disposition Tables.  But we are confident that we have correctly counted the Lord entries (and the NARA figures are very close to ours). Our APP document collection of numbered Executive Orders is complete with respect to published Orders starting in 1945.  We are adding earlier orders to the collection as possible, and welcome (and will gladly acknowledge) contributions to this effort.  We will also be adding our independent tallies for unnumbered orders. Sources: Lord, Clifford L., ed. 1944. Presidential Executive Orders, Numbered 1-8030, 1862-1938. Prepared by the Historical Records Survey, New York City.  New York:  Books Inc. Lord, Clifford L., ed. 1943.  List and Index of Presidential Executive Orders (Unnumbered Series, 1789 – 1941).  New Jersey Historical Records Survey, Works Progress Administration, Newark, NJ

Table:

 


President
Term  

Total Orders1

 

Average / YearYears in OfficeEO Number Range
George Washington Total817.85unnumbered
John Adams Total10.254.00unnumbered
Thomas Jefferson Total418.00unnumbered
James Madison Total10.138.00unnumbered
James Monroe Total
1
0.138.00unnumbered
John Quincy Adams Total314.00unnumbered
Andrew Jackson Total

12
28.00unnumbered
Martin van Buren Total1034.00unnumbered
William Henry HarrisonTotal

0
00.08unnumbered
John Tyler Total1743.92unnumbered
James K. Polk Total

18
54.00unnumbered
Zachary Taylor Total541.35unnumbered
Millard Fillmore Total1252.65unnumbered
Franklin Pierce Total

35
94.00unnumbered
James Buchanan Total1644.00unnumbered
Abraham Lincoln Total48124.12unnumbered
Andrew Johnson Total

79
203.89unnumbered
Ulysses S. Grant Total217278.00unnumbered
Rutherford B. Hayes Total

92
234.00unnumbered
James Garfield Total6110.55unnumbered
Chester Arthur Total96283.46unnumbered
Grover Cleveland – I Total113284.00unnumbered
Benjamin Harrison Total

143
364.00unnumbered
Grover Cleveland – II Total140354.00unnumbered
William McKinley Total

185
414.53unnumbered
Theodore Roosevelt Total1,0811457.47
William Howard TaftTotal

724
1814.00
Woodrow Wilson Total1,8032258.00
Warren G. Harding Total

522
2172.41
Calvin Coolidge Total1,2032155.59
Herbert Hoover Total9682424.005075 – 6070
Franklin D. Roosevelt Total3,72130712.126071 – 9537
Harry S. Truman Total

907
1177.789538 – 10431
I5041333.789538 – 10029
II4031014.0010030 – 10431
Dwight D. Eisenhower Total484618.0010432 – 10913
I266674.0010432 – 10695-A
II218554.0010696 – 10913
John F. Kennedy Total214752.8410914 – 11127
Lyndon B. Johnson Total

325
635.1711128 – 11451
Richard Nixon Total346625.5511452 – 11797
I247624.0011452 – 11698
II99641.5511699 – 11797
Gerald R. FordTotal

169
692.4511798 – 11966
Jimmy Carter Total320804.0011967 – 12286
Ronald Reagan Total

381
488.0012287 – 12667
I213534.0012287 – 12499
II168424.0012500 – 12667
George Bush Total166424.0012668 – 12833
William J. Clinton Total364468.0012834 – 13197
I200504.0012834 – 13033
II164414.0013034 – 13197
George W. Bush Total

291
368.0013198 – 13488
I173434.0013198 – 13370
II118304.0013371 – 13488
Barack ObamaTotal276358.0013489 – 13764
I147374.0013489 – 13635
II129324.0013636 – 13764
Donald J. TrumpTotal7 so far and that’s only the first week00.00 – Let’s keep it at 0 years.  Get Trump OUT!13765 – xxxxx
Note: Obama EO counts are updated monthly following the 20th day of the month to recompute average per year. Orders issued between updates can be accessed here:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/executive_orders.php?year=2017

 

NOTES:

Last Update: Data through January 20, 2017. Citation: Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, “Executive Orders.” The American Presidency Project. Ed. John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters. Santa Barbara, CA. 1999-2017. Available from the World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php. Notes: 1 1789 to 1945 (Roosevelt) data includes “numbered” and “unnumbered” executive orders. 1945 (Truman) & 1967 (Johnson) data includes only numbered executive orders including those with letter designations (ex. Executive Order 9577-A). Data Sources: • 1789 – 1945 (Roosevelt) data from Lyn Ragsdale, “Vital Statisitcs on the Presidency: Washington to Clinton.” rev. ed. (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1998); data compiled by John Woolley, The American Presidency Project; and figures from the National Archives and Records Administration. • 1945 (Truman) – present data compiled by Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project, from documents contained in the Federal Register.

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