Monthly Archives: October 2013

The government has been back in business for more than a week now, and the Federal Register is now reflecting it. Monday continued the slow shutdown pace, with just 1 regulation and 60 pages. Tuesday saw that spike to 16 regulations and 537 pages, and it has stayed elevated since. Friday’s Federal Register contained 27 new final regulations and 17 proposed regulations in its 329 pages. The pace of new rules is definitely above normal, but not like the deluge witnessed after the Gingrich-Clinton shutdowns, where 82 regulations were published in one day. A normal day has about 15 rules, and right now we’re seeing about 20. We’ll see what the coming week brings.

On to the data:

• Last week, 78 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 3 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 9 minutes.
• All in all, 2,950 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,613 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,792 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 63,942 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 77,225 pages, which would be good for fifth all time. The current record is 81,405 pages, set in 2010.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. No such rules were published last week, leaving the total at 34 so far in 2013.
• The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $6.53 billion to $11.93 billion.
• So far, 269 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 566 final rules affect small business; 79 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• The Energy department issued testing procedures for determining a television set’s energy efficiency. It also issued a similar rule for, among other things, urinals.
• The FAA had a busy week, issuing 18 regulations. You can read them all here.
• So did the EPA with 15 new regulations, including air quality rules for Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Rhode Island, Ohio, Idaho, Indiana, D.C., and Ohio again.
• The FDA issued a correction to its intrastate and interstate requirements for turtles.
• If you are planning on moving a citrus canker plant across state lines, read this regulation first.
• The Agricultural Marketing Service is suspending its apricot handling regulations in certain counties in Washington State. It is increasing the assessment rate in other counties.
• As part of the U.S.-Panama free trade agreement, certain tariffs are being lowered.
• Revised critical habitat for the Comal Springs dryopoid beetle, Comal Springs riffle beetle, and the Pack’s Cave amphipod.

For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.

Since Congress and the president reached a deal on the debt ceiling, this is the second and final special shutdown edition of the Battered Business Bureau. This week’s was the smallest Federal Register this analyst has ever seen, with a grand total of 3 rules and 60 pages. Thursday’s edition was just 5 pages long, the lowest total of the entire shutdown.

The post-shutdown deluge of rules will likely start on either Monday or Tuesday. Expect to see very different numbers in next week’s edition.

On to the data:

Last week, 3 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 6 new final rules the previous week.

• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 56 hours.
• All in all, 2,872 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,602 new final rules. Keep in mind the shutdown is artificially lowering this projection; it was 3,687 last week. It should be back to its usual 3,700+ range after next week.
• Last week, 60 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 62,150 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 76,918 pages, which would be good for fifth all time – keep in mind, though, the light shutdown week artificially lowers this projection. The actual page count will likely be much closer to 80,000. The current record is 81,405 pages, set in 2010.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. No such rules were published last week, leaving the total at 34 so far in 2013.
• The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $6.53 billion to $11.93 billion.
• So far, 258 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 550 final rules affect small business; 75 of them are significant rules.

Instead of the usual highlights from selected final rules, here are all of them, since there were only three:

The Coast Guard a established temporary safety zone in the Tennessee River near Florence, Alabama For a boat race, and another one for a fireworks show in Oyster Bay, New York.

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a catch limit for herring.
• And that’s it.

For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.