A Brief History of Time (to Issuance)

Abstract

This chapter examines to another aspect of executive order management. It turns out that the average executive order takes some seventy-five days to move from draft proposal to the Federal Register, with huge variation around that figure. What affects that timing? What makes an executive order take longer to issue? What characteristics of orders and agencies, of interagency interaction and requirements of the management process itself, are associated with delay? Quantitative analysis, elaborated by case studies, helps us explore these questions for the first time as the duration of the formulation process is tested as a proxy for executive collective action problems.