Limited impact of the shutdown on regulatory production

Regblog has published an interesting article investigating in detail how government shutdowns can affect the stream of regulation, using past examples (1995-1996) as well as first impacts of the most recent one. The conclusion is encouraging: the effects of a freeze of regulatory activity are temporary and the machine soon catches up. "This glance back at the shutdowns from the 1990s does suggest that a shutdown does not create long-lasting effects on agencies’ regulatory capacities. It might take them a while to warm up after the shutdown, but as long as politicians do eventually come to an agreement and re-open government, federal agencies will fairly soon be back in business protecting health, safety, and the environment."