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Economy US GDP increased 2.1% in 2022 after increasing 5.9% in 2021. Year-over-year inflation, the rate at which consumer prices increase, was 6.5% in December 2022. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates seven times in 2022 and again on February 1, 2023 to curb inflation, increasing the target rate from near zero to 4.5-4.75%. When accounting for inflation, workers’ average hourly earnings were down 1.7% in December 2022 compared to a year prior. The ratio of unemployed people to job openings remained at or near record lows throughout 2022. The unemployment rate was 4.0% at the beginning of 2022 and ended the year at 3.5%. The labor force participation rate remains almost one percentage point below February 2020. Last year, the US imported $948.1 billion more than it exported, leading to a 3.9% increase in the trade deficit from 2021. This is the 5th largest annual trade deficit, after adjusting for inflation.
Standard of Living In the first year of the pandemic, middle-class families received an average market income of $57,218 from wages, retirement, and more. Middle-class families received $31,578 in government assistance and paid $18,014 in taxes in 2020. More employees are getting vacation time, sick leave, retirement benefits, and paid family leave than in 2010. Wealth fell for all income quintiles except the bottom 20% over the first three quarters of 2022. The net worth of the middle class averaged $10.3 trillion, or about $393,000 per household, in the first three quarters of 2022. The poverty rate increased in 2020 and 2021, reaching 11.6% in 2021. Total federal government assistance to individuals decreased 38.6% in fiscal year 2022 but was 42.2% higher than in FY 2019. The number of individuals experiencing homelessness increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2020.
Health Since hitting a peak of 42.5 in January 2022, weekly COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 adults remained below 11.7 from March through the end of 2022. As of December 2022, about 28% of people who have had COVID-19 reported experiencing long COVID. About 3.5 million people died in 2021, 2.4% more than in 2020 and 21.3% more than 2019. The top three causes — cancer, heart disease, and COVID-19 — accounted for 50% of deaths. Preliminary 2021 data shows that life expectancy decreased for the second consecutive year to 76.1 years. The federal government spent $173.3 billion on public health in 2022 — 13.6% more than 2021 but 10.7% less than during the first year of the pandemic. In 2021, 8.3% of the population (27.2 million Americans) were uninsured, down from 8.6% in 2020 but up from 8.0% in 2019. Medicare and Medicaid spend more per enrollee than private insurance while covering older and low-income populations. Last year, 22 states restricted abortion access while 19 protected it.
Population The population grew faster last year, but 2022 still had the third-lowest growth rate in US history after 2021’s record-low growth rate. Population growth rates vary widely between states. Nevada residents almost quadrupled between 1980 and 2022, while West Virginia’s population decreased. The fertility rate increased to 56.6 births per 1,000 women in 2021 — the first increase since 2014, but still lower than any other year except 2020. According to preliminary data, the death rate fell in 2022 after rising for two years. It remains above pre-pandemic levels. 333.3 million people lived in the United States in 2022. The country is growing more racially and ethnically diverse. The population is getting older. Single adults without kids comprised 29% of all US households in 2022, up from 13% in 1960.
Budget The federal government collected $5.0 trillion in revenue in fiscal year 2022 (FY 2022) — or $15,098 per person. The federal government spent $6.5 trillion in FY 2022 — or $19,434 per person — including funds distributed to states. Federal revenue increased 14.3% in FY 2022 after collecting more personal income taxes, social security taxes, and auctioning spectrum for commercial wireless and broadcast use. Federal spending decreased 12.4% in FY 2022 after remaining relatively flat in FY 2021. The federal government spent 28.7% more than it collected in FY 2022, resulting in a $1.45 trillion deficit. The national debt hit $30.9 trillion last fiscal year.
Education Eighth-grade math and reading proficiency fell more between 2019 and 2022 than any other period for which data is available. The public-school student-teacher ratio dropped from 15.9 in fall 2019 to 15.4 in fall 2020, the lowest since 2009. Public schools spent an average of $15,375 per student in the 2019–2020 school year, more than any previous year after adjusting for inflation. Of the students who started high school in 2010, 23% completed a four-year college degree by 2020. Another 27% had enrolled in college but not yet graduated. The median student loan balance for Black families is increasing faster than for families of other races or ethnicities, reaching $34,000 in 2019. Forty-eight percent of the population ages 25 and older has a college degree. On average, people with no more than a bachelor’s degree earned $1,432 per week in 2022, roughly 68% more than workers with no more than a high school diploma.
Crime & Justice Violent crime fell by 1.7% in 2021 after growing by 4.6% in 2020. Property crime fell for the second year in a row in 2021 by 4.5%. Governments spent $267 billion on law enforcement and corrections in 2020 — the most since at least 1980 after adjusting for inflation. The number of police officers per 100,000 people fell 6.9% from its peak in 2009 to 2021. Law enforcement cleared 16% of reported Part I crimes in 2021 — meaning an arrest was made or exceptional circumstances, such as the death of the offender, prevented arrest. More than 5.5 million people were in prison, jail, or on probation or parole in 2020. The share of prisoners whose most serious offense, as defined by the FBI, is a drug crime has declined annually since 2007. Increased firearm suicides and homicides drove the nation's firearm death rate from 13.7 to 14.8 deaths per 100,000 people between 2020 and 2021.
Infrastructure About 39% of 2022 federal transportation and infrastructure spending was for highway transportation and 28% was for rail and mass transit. The rest was for air travel (22%) and water (9%). In 2020, state and local governments spent $211.8 billion on transportation and infrastructure, excluding government transfers. That was 57% of all government transportation and infrastructure spending. In 2022, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) allocated at least $82.5 million on repairing and rebuilding infrastructure after natural disasters. Air travel increased in 2022 but is below 2019 levels, with the number of scheduled flights down 9% from January through October. The nation has 620,669 bridges and their conditions are improving. Eleven percent of rural roads and 32.1% of urban roads were in unsatisfactory condition in 2020. Nearly all homes can access the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) national minimum broadband speeds standards of 25 megabits per second (mbps) for downloads and 3 mbps for uploads.
Environment After falling in 2021, global temperatures rose in 2022 and were higher than any recorded year prior to 2015. Nine states had unusually high average temperatures in 2022 compared to their 20th-century averages. The US experienced 18 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters last year. Wildfires burned 7.6 million acres in 2022. The nation’s air quality has improved since 1980, but quality varies widely by location. The average American generated 4.9 pounds of trash per day in 2018. The federal government spent $31.2 billion on the environment and natural resources in FY 2022.
Energy The US exported about 30% more energy than it imported in 2022. Average prices for a gallon of regular-grade gas rose from $3.45 in January 2022 to $4.87 in June — the highest level since September 2012, after adjusting for inflation. Energy consumption per person increased for the second year after dipping in 2020. About 68% of energy consumption is from petroleum or natural gas, while renewable and nuclear sources account for 20%. Coal production has declined since 2010. Natural gas and crude oil production are growing. Nuclear energy production, the nation’s leading non-fossil fuel energy source since 1984, has remained flat for two decades. Solar and wind energy are growing. Out of 7.8 million energy-related jobs in 2021, energy efficiency jobs comprised the largest share, employing 2.2 million people. Carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption rose in 2021 and 2022 after dropping in 2020.
Immigration Immigration to the US rose in FY 2021 after a drop in 2020. Excluding tourism and unauthorized arrivals, most people arriving in the US are temporary workers, students, or coming to be with their families. About 13.6% of people in the US are foreign-born. Foreign-born people are more likely to be in the labor force and in a married-couple family than people born in the US. Government spending on immigration and border security dropped in 2022 after hitting a record high in 2020 and staying elevated in 2021. The number of immigrants turned away or apprehended at borders reached 2.8 million in FY 2022, the highest number since at least 1980. Immigration officials removed 89,000 people from the US in 2021. This is the fewest removals since 1996. The federal government estimated 11.4 million unauthorized immigrants were in the country in 2018.
Defense Defense spending decreased 5.3% in 2022 and was 16.7% lower than its 2010 peak. Afghanistan and Israel received the most US foreign aid between 2017 and 2020. That aid decreased by 20% and 1% in 2020, respectively. The nation spent $57.0 billion on foreign aid in FY 2020, a 4.6% increase from FY 2019. There were 1.3 million active-duty military in 2022, 39% fewer than in 1987 — its recent peak. There were 171,736 permanently assigned active-duty troops abroad in 2022. Veterans consistently have lower unemployment levels than the national rate.
Federal Government Actions Federal actions frequently addressed defense, and more than a third of defense-related actions were responses to the war between Russia and Ukraine. While budget bills were a relatively small share of the laws Congress passed, the Inflation Reduction Act used tax and spending policy to address a variety of topics. In addition to defense-related actions on the war in Ukraine, Congress passed 19 bills affecting veterans, including several bills adjusting their financial benefits. Of President Biden’s 75 executive orders or presidential memoranda, 46 related to defense. The economy and health were the second-and third- most frequently addressed topics in Biden’s executive orders or presidential memoranda. There were 42 total actions related to Americans’ standard of living — 33 of these were rule changes by executive agencies. Nearly one-fifth of rules were on the economy.
Home / Reports / 2023 State of the Union / Federal Government Actions

Federal Government Actions

What did the federal government do last year?

The federal government's executive, legislative, and judicial branches act together to shape policy and its implementation. For a glimpse into what the federal government does, this section summarizes some of the work the executive and legislative branches completed in 2022. These are bills that became public law, executive orders and presidential memoranda, and rulemaking by executive agencies that the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs classified as significant.

The federal executive and legislative branches took 549 policy actions in 2022, spanning issues such as the economy, health, and the environment. Almost half of these actions were bills passed by Congress.

Congress passed 249 bills in 2022.

Federal Government Actions

While budget bills were a relatively small share of the laws Congress passed, the Inflation Reduction Act used tax and spending policy to address a variety of topics.

The act imposed a minimum 15% tax on corporate book income, expanded the Internal Revenue Service and federal tax credits for electric vehicles, and made changes to allow Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies.

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President Biden signed 75 executive orders or presidential memoranda in 2022.

Federal Government Actions

The economy and health were the second-and third- most frequently addressed topics in Biden’s executive orders or presidential memoranda.

Of the eight presidential actions on the economy, two took steps to implement the Chips and Science Act (passed by Congress in 2022, that act aims to increase American competitiveness in semiconductor production). Health-related actions included abortion protections and instructions to the Department of Health and Human Services to test new payment models that could lower drug prices.

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Executive agencies made 225 rule changes in 2022.

Federal Government Actions

Nearly one-fifth of rules were on the economy.

These rules addressed business support programs, general financial and business regulations, and consumer protections.

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To learn more, look at the full list of actions categorized in this section, including descriptions, dates, source links, and the names and political parties of bill sponsors, by downloading below.

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