D uring the final months of recent presidential administrations, federal agencies have typically issued a larger number of rules relative to comparable time periods earlier in the administration. This phenomenon is often referred to as "midnight rulemaking." Various scholars and public officials have documented evidence of midnight rulemaking by several recent outgoing administrations, especially for those outgoing administrations that will be replaced by an administration of a different party. Studies have documented an increase in rulemaking activity as measured in several different ways. This includes, for example, an increase in the number of economically significant rules issued in the final year of several outgoing presidents. Some studies have shown that not only are more regulations finalized at the end of an outgoing President's administration, but more proposed rules (also known as notices of proposed rulemaking, or NPRMs) are issued during that period as well. Additionally, studies have documented an increase in the number of rules reviewed at the Office of Management and Budget during the final months of outgoing administrations, which is suggestive of a last-minute rush to complete the work of the administration. One possible explanation for the issuance of "midnight rules" is the desire of the outgoing administration to complete its work and achieve certain policy goals before the end of its term of office—what has been termed the "Cinderella effect." As one George W. Bush Administration official said, midnight rulemaking is like "Cinderella leaving the ball. … Presidential appointees hurried to issue last-minute 'midnight' regulations before they turned back into ordinary citizens at noon on January 20 th ." Because it may be difficult to change or eliminate rules after they have taken effect, issuing midnight rules can also help ensure a legacy for a President—especially when an incoming administration is of a different party. At times, certain rules issued during the last few months of an administration have been considered by some as controversial. For example, when President William J. Clinton was leaving office, his administration issued energy efficiency standards for washing machines and a rule setting ergonomics standards in the workplace. Shortly before the end of President George W. Bush's second term concluded, his administration finalized rules allowing states to determine whether concealed firearms may be carried in national parks and giving agencies greater responsibility to determine when and how their actions may affect species under the Endangered Species Act. On the other hand, a 2012 study for the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) concluded that many midnight regulations were "relatively routine matters not implicating new policy initiatives by incumbent administrations," and that the "majority of the rules appear to be the result of finishing tasks that were initiated before the Presidential transition period or the result of deadlines outside the agency's control (such as year-end statutory or court-ordered deadlines)." The study cited some evidence of the strategic use of midnight rules to implement certain desired policies before leaving office, but, in general, the study said that "the perception of midnight rulemaking as an unseemly practice is worse than the reality." One general concern raised about midnight rulemaking is that an outgoing administration has less political accountability compared to an administration faced with the possibility of re-election. Furthermore, rules that are hurried through at the end of an administration may not have the same opportunity for public input. Agencies may find that in order to issue regulations by the end of an administration, they may not have sufficient time to review and digest public comments taken during the comment period. Another concern is that the quality of the regulations themselves may suffer during the midnight period, since the departing administration may issue rules quickly, and as a result, the rules may not receive adequate review. For example, one study of midnight rulemaking suggested that "an increase in the number of regulations promulgated in a given time period could overwhelm the institutional review process that serves to ensure that new regulations have been carefully considered, are based on sound evidence, and justify their cost." In particular, this concern is that the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) may not have enough staff or resources to conduct full reviews of regulations if OIRA receives a larger number of regulations than usual for review. Finally, some have argued that the task of evaluating a previous administration's midnight rules can potentially overwhelm a new administration. One approach previous Presidents have used to control rulemaking at the start of their administrations has been the imposition of a moratorium on new regulations from executive departments and independent agencies. Such moratoria have sometimes been accompanied by a requirement that the departments and agencies postpone the effective dates of certain rules that were issued at the end of the previous President's term. Proposed rules that have not been published in the Federal Register as final rules by the time the outgoing President leaves office can be withdrawn by a new administration. However, once final rules have been published in the Federal Register , the only way for a new administration to eliminate or change them is to go through the rulemaking process again (see section below entitled " Eliminating or Changing Midnight Rules "). On January 29, 1981, shortly after taking office, President Ronald Reagan issued a memorandum to the heads of the Cabinet departments and the EPA Administrator directing them to take certain actions that would give the new administration time to implement a "new regulatory oversight process," particularly for "last-minute decisions" made by the previous administration. Specifically, the memorandum said that agencies must, to the extent permitted by law, (1) publish a notice in the Federal Register postponing for 60 days the effective date of all final rules that were scheduled to take effect during the next 60 days, and (2) refrain from promulgating any new final rules. Executive Order 12291, issued a few weeks later, contained another moratorium on rulemaking that supplemented, but did not supplant, the January 29, 1981, memorandum. Section 7 of the executive order directed agencies to "suspend or postpone the effective dates of all 'major' rules that they have promulgated in final form as of the date of this Order, but that have not yet become effective." Excluded were major rules that could not be legally postponed or suspended, and those that "for good cause, ought to become effective as final rules." Agencies were also directed to prepare a regulatory impact analysis for each major rule suspended or postponed, and to refrain from promulgating any new final rules until a final regulatory impact analysis had been conducted. On January 22, 1993, Leon E. Panetta, the Director of OMB for the incoming William Clinton Administration, sent a memorandum to the heads and acting heads of Cabinet departments and independent agencies requesting them to (1) not send proposed or final rules to the Office of the Federal Register for publication until they had been approved by an agency head appointed by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate, and (2) withdraw from the Office of the Federal Register all regulations that had not been published in the Federal Register and that could be withdrawn under existing procedures. The requirements did not apply, however, to any rules that required immediate issuance because of a statutory or judicial deadline. The OMB Director said these actions were needed because it was "important that President Clinton's appointees have an opportunity to review and approve new regulations." In contrast to the Reagan memorandum and Executive Order 12291, the Panetta memorandum did not instruct agencies to postpone the effective dates of any rules. On January 20, 2001, Andrew H. Card, Jr., assistant to President George W. Bush and White House Chief of Staff, sent a memorandum to the heads and acting heads of all executive departments and agencies generally directing them to (1) not send proposed or final rules to the Office of the Federal Register, (2) withdraw from the Office rules that had not yet been published in the Federal Register , and (3) postpone for 60 days the effective dates of rules that had been published but had not yet taken effect. The Card memorandum instructed agencies to exclude any rules promulgated pursuant to statutory or judicial deadlines, and to notify the OMB Director of any rules that should be excluded because they "impact critical health and safety functions of the agency." The memorandum indicated that these actions were needed to "ensure that the President's appointees have the opportunity to review any new or pending regulations." The George W. Bush Administration later issued another memorandum encouraging agencies to complete their rulemakings far before the end of the administration, likely to avoid giving the new President an opportunity to prevent the Bush Administration's midnight rules from being issued or taking effect. On May 9, 2008, White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies stating that, except for "extraordinary circumstances, regulations to be finalized in this Administration should be proposed no later than June 1, 2008, and final regulations should be issued no later than November 1, 2008." He also said the Administrator of OIRA would "coordinate an effort to complete Administration priorities in this final year," and that the Administrator would "report on a regular basis regarding agency compliance with this memorandum." Despite this initiative and statements from the White House, the number of rules that federal agencies promulgated in the final months of the Bush Administration increased. One indication of this increase is the number of major final rules that were published and sent to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) pursuant to requirements in the Congressional Review Act (CRA, 5 U.S.C. §§801-808). The CRA requires GAO to provide Congress with a report on each final rule that OIRA designates as a "major" rule (e.g., rules with at least a $100 million impact on the economy) within 15 calendar days of the rule being sent to GAO and Congress.