Category Archives: Regulation of the Day

The fifth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state.

Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Department of Justice ($26 billion 2009 budget, 112,000 employees).

Parole rules for DC offenders and federal offenders are being harmonized, which means they are being made more similar. For details, see pages 28,602-28,606 of the 2009 Federal Register.

Federal parole rules affect more and more people as time goes by. More than 200,000 people are currently in federal prisons, and the number goes up every year.

This is puzzling since the Constitution lists only three federal crimes — treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. Somewhat fewer than 200,000 people have committed those offenses.

John S. Baker, Jr. found an answer to this conundrum in 2007. He estimated that the number of federal crimes had increased more than a thousand-fold to at least 4,450. Many of them are duplicates of existing state offenses. More than 50 new federal crimes are created every year.

Seems a bit much, does it not?

The third in an occasional series that shines a little light on what the regulatory state is up to.

Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Administration for Children and Families ($47.355 billion 2008 budget).

On June 26, the National Commission on Children and Disasters is having a meeting. They will be talking about another meeting from the day before.

While not a regulation per se, these meetings could result in multiple new rules hitting the books – and taxpayers. According to page 27,337 of the 2009 Federal Register, proposals to be discussed will cover everything from pediatric medical care during a natural disaster to “education and juvenile justice,” whatever that is.

The second installment of an occasional series that shines a little light on what the regulatory state is up to.

Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Department of Homeland Security (208,000 employees, $52 billion 2009 budget).

Sturgeon Bay (pop. 9,778) is the largest city in Door County, Wisconsin. It’s a fine place to take a vacation. The downtown’s historic Michigan Street Bridge is under repair this summer, increasing traffic over Sturgeon Bay’s other drawbridge. The bridge’s raising/lowering schedule needs to be adjusted to fit the changed traffic patterns and still allow boats access to the ship canal.

This is not rocket science – bridge up, bridge down. But apparently neither the city nor the state Department of Transportation was up to the task, because they asked the federal government to create a revised drawbridge schedule for them. The result appears on pages 26,952 – 26,954 of the 2009 Federal Register.