Despite uncontradicted statements attributed to Rush Limbaugh that Mr. Clinton issued more executive orders than any prior president, his numbers are at the low end for recent presidents, despite questions about content. Mr. Clinton has averaged 45.8 executive orders a year, the least among the last eight presidents except for Mr. Bush, who averaged 42 per year.
Mr. Carter leads the pack with 80 per year, followed by Mr. Kennedy (76), and Gerald Ford (70). All, however, fell behind a pace that averaged 96 orders per year since 1862.
Even the White House seemed to reach that conclusion last year, in the face of bipartisan outrage by the nation's governors over a 1998 order drastically changing federalism rules. The order galvanized opponents to such fury that the White House took the unprecedented step of suspending it in August 1998, three months after it was signed.
That document, Executive Order 13083, junked a working arrangement with the states that President Reagan laid down in 1987. It seemingly prescribed strict adherence to constitutional dictates limiting federal power over the states but set up nine exceptions that would have allowed draconian federal action virtually any time federal agencies decided that states were unable to implement "uniform national standards."
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