With a new President sworn in and busily issuing executive orders, it seemed like a good time to address the issue.

It seems every time we change Presidents, the opposite party complains about the number and topic of executive orders issued.

But what are we comparing to? What’s “normal”?

See the article at https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/executive-orders.

For a summary:

George Washington got us started with a whopping 8 executive orders… That mechanism was barely used through his successors, but then Ulysses S. Grant issued 217. One can only assume this was largely tied to the actions after the Civil War.

Teddy Roosevelt issued 1081. Given this President created many of our National Parks and National Monuments, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Is it a surprise that he was a Republican? While likely a topic for another day, this shows you that creating bigger federal government, issuing executive orders, caring about the environment are not specific to one party of the other.

More evidence?

Woodrow Wilson issued 1803 executive orders – likely dealing with World War I.

FDR issued the record – at 3721 executive orders. Since he was and will be the only President to serve 3 terms, given the Constitutional amendment that resulted from 12 years of the same President, he will likely hold the record forever. He had to deal with both the Great Depression and World War II as well.

Ronald Reagan issued 381.

Bill Clinton issued 364.

GW Bush issued 291.

B. Obama issued 276, and Trump issued only 220.

This shows while the executive order mechanism has been used steadily in the last few decades, its use is trending down. The party of the sitting President seems irrelevant to the number of orders issued, but times of war or economic stress result in the President taking unilateral action separate from Congress.

Only time will tell if President Biden’s term will be any different. Odds say it won’t be.