Category Archives: regulation

It was a short work week due to the Fourth of July holiday, but agencies still managed to issue new rules covering everything from stormwater to seatbelts.

On to the data:

• Last week, 50 new final regulations were published in theFederal Register, after 137 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every one hour and 14 minutes.
• With 1,859 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,548 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
• Last week, 1,293 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,051 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 44,693 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 85,292 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 19 such rules have been published so far in 2016, none in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $3.82 billion to $6.02 billion.
• 141 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
• So far in 2016, 354 new rules affect small businesses; 53 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• The EPA has decided not to regulate forest road stormwater discharges under the Clean Water Act “at this time.”
• Updated competitive bidding requirements for radio broadcasters applying for FCC authorization.
• The National Indian Gaming Commission is updating its civil violation penalties for inflation, as are the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Office.
• A correction to a recent seat-belt regulation. Previously limited to cargo-carrying vehicles, the rule is now expanding to cover passenger-carrying vehicles.
• New IRS rule for how to calculate gains and losses in money market funds.

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

Maybe the recently-passed Congressional Review Act deadline I wrote about previously hasn’t had much effect on midnight regulators. The Federal Registeronce again topped 2,000 pages last week, and included a year-high 137 final regulations, ranging from eggs to groupers.

On to the data:

• Last week, 137 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 77 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every one hour and 14 minutes.
• With 1,809 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,561 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
• Last week, 2,051 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,343 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 43,200 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 85,001 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 19 such rules have been published so far in 2016, two in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $3.82 billion to $6.02 billion.
• 140 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
• So far in 2016, 340 new rules affect small businesses; 53 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• Dodd-Frank-related record keeping requirements for the FDIC regarding its member banks.
• Additives for animal feed.
• 152 pages of regulations for drones. This rule is economically significant, with 2016 costs ranging from $25.87 million to $302.72 million. The difference, which is more than an order of magnitude, is the FAA’s way of saying “we have no idea what this thing will cost.” The decimal points show a sense of humor, and little else. Total estimated costs from 2016-2020 range from $413.15 million to $2.63112 billion; the same caveats apply.
• If you make things with eggs and export them, you can now submit your required paperwork electronically. Welcome to the current century, Food Safety and Inspection Service.
• An energy conservation program for battery chargers, which are themselves intended to conserve energy.
• The Nassau grouper is now a threatened species.
• Mementos on the International Space Station.
• Another rule for preventing collisions at sea.
• Just in case compact fluorescent light manufacturers feel threatened by competition, the Energy Department issued a new testing rule for LED lights.
• Fire safety requirements for buildings which house Medicare beneficiaries.

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

How much should the U.S. government spend on defense? How much on health care? Or energy, or technology? Every year, the U.S. federal government is supposed to publish a spending budget to answer these sorts of questions. But there is no equivalent budget for regulations. Why not? My colleague Wayne Crews’ newest study asks exactly that question.

Why is this a problem? Suppose the Labor Department doesn’t have the money in its budget for some job-training program it has in mind. It can get around the problem by simply issuing a regulation requiring private companies to run the same program, at their expense. People have to pay for it either way. But the regulatory way doesn’t show up on the federal spending ledger.

A regulatory budget, on the other hand, would prevent regulatory agencies from doing darn near anything they want. People like you and me have to prioritize our spending. If I buy a new television, that’s money I can’t put into my child’s college fund. Money you spend on a new car is money you can’t put into your retirement account.

Regulatory agencies, with their multi-billion dollar budgets, do not face the same tradeoffs that people like you and I do. A regulatory budget would help agencies behave more like people.

As it is now, if the Environmental Protection Agency issues a new power plant regulation adding $9.6 billion to people’s electricity bills every year, so what? It can, and will, pass additional regulations affecting everything from air conditioners to refrigerators, further adding to the damage. Federal regulations make it harder for people to pay their mortgages, student loans, and other bills.

The EPA hurts people, to the tune of at least $353 billion per year, on just an $8 billion budget. A regulatory budget would force the agency to publicly recognize that nearly 40-fold difference. Not to pick on the EPA specifically, but they do have a transparency problem. So do most of the 60-plus other rulemaking agencies that issue more than 3,400 new regulations every year. Their combined efforts cost consumers and entrepreneurs about $1.88 trillion every year.

A regulatory budget, similar to the spending requests agencies make every year, would go a long way toward making the public more aware of how much agencies like the EPA, FCC, SEC, and others actually cost. A regulatory budget is not be a panacea, but it would be better than what we have now.

For more see Wayne’s regulatory budget paper here.

The 2016 Federal Register surpassed 40,000 pages last week, with new rules ranging from lights on farm equipment to grading raisins.

On to the data:

• Last week, 77 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 93 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 11 minutes.
• With 1,672 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,426 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
• Last week, 1,343 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,802 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 41,149 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 84,322 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 16 such rules have been published so far in 2016, one in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $3.70 billion to $5.62 billion.
• 132 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
• So far in 2016, 331 new rules affect small businesses; 49 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• Federal standards for lights on farm equipment.
• You can buy crop insurance from the federal government. Here are the latest revisions to the program.
• The Industry and Security Bureau has updated its penalties for people who violate its exporting regulations.
• The elfin woods warbler is now a threatened species.
• Limits on the number of takeoffs and landings at JFK Airport.
• NASA is eliminating redundant regulations, and some obsolete ones. More agencies should follow NASA’s lead.
• A new Medicare rule for lab test payments meets the $100 million economically significant threshold, but regulators declined to give a cost analysis. “[B]ecause such data are not yet available, we are limited in our ability to provide estimated impacts of the payment policies under different scenarios.” Will they provide a retrospective cost analysis when they do have data?
• How to grade raisins.
• Incinerating solid waste.

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

The number of new regulations for the year exceeded the 1,500 mark last week, with new rules covering everything from seatbelts to suckerfish.

On to the data:

• Last week, 97 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 61 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every one hour and 44 minutes.
• With 1,502 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,283 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
• Last week, 1,920 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,895 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 38,004 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 84,831 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 15 such rules have been published so far in 2016, none in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $3.59 billion to $5.43 billion.
• 123 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
• So far in 2016, 297 new rules affect small businesses; 45 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• Two new rules for bulk drug substances.
• Reporting requirements for railroad crossing inventories.
• New safety standards for carriages and strollers.
• Sulfur dioxide rules for Minnesota.
• Great American Ballpark, home of the Cincinnati Reds, is right next to the Ohio River. The Coast Guard is establishing safety zones in the river for the occasional fireworks shows the team sometimes puts on after games.
• Energy conservation test procedures for central air conditioners and heat pumps.
• Preventing collisions at sea.
• Commercial drivers are now federally required to wear seatbelts.
• The Zuni bluehead sucker is receiving 34.6 miles of river in New Mexico asdesignated critical habitat.

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

Last week’s Federal Register fell short of 2,000 pages, mainly because it was a four-day work week due the Memorial Day holiday. While the Federal Register continues its record pace, there were no economically significant rules last week (costing $100 million-plus per year), after four the previous week. It’s still too early to tell if the Congression Review Act-related midnight rush was real or not, but early indications are that it may be. New rules from the last week range from portable air conditioning to the Death Master File.

On to the data:

• Last week, 61 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 70 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 46 minutes.
• With 1,405 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,283 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
• Last week, 1,895 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,013 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 36,084 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 84,309 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 15 such rules have been published so far in 2016, none in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $3.59 billion to $5.43 billion.
• 120 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
• So far in 2016, 270 new rules affect small businesses; 45 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• NASA is revising its policies for cooperative agreements with commercial firms.
• The State Health Insurance Assistance Program is now finalized.
• Television broadcast licensing changes for Scottsbluff and Sidney, Nebraska.
• Federal radio frequency management.
• The federal government maintains a Death Master File. A new rule determines who may access it.
• Energy conservation test procedures for portable air conditioners.

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

The Congressional Review Act deadline for the possible midnight regulation rush has now likely passed, though the Federal Register once again topped 2,000 pages last week. That makes four weeks out of the last five the page count has gotten that high, which is unusual. If there is a slowdown in the next few months, we’ll know if the midnight rush was real or not. For now, it’s too early to tell. In the meantime, new regulations in the last week ranged from food labels to selling electricity.

On to the data:

• Last week, 70 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 68 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 24 minutes.
• With 1,344 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,262 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
• Last week, 2,013 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,065 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 34,189 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 82,984 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 15 such rules have been published so far in 2016, four in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $3.59 billion to $5.43 billion.
• 113 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
• So far in 2016, 261 new rules affect small businesses; 43 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• New federal rules for how many airplanes may take off and land at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Ditto for nearby JFK Airport.
• The Tornillo-Guadalupe bridge between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico is now a federally designated commercial zone.
• Disclosure requirements for cable and satellite tv operators.
• New energy conservation standards are on the way for commercial HVAC equipment.
• Every now and then, the Small Business Administration updates its standards for which businesses are eligible for its corporate welfare. Here is the latest round.
• Don’t trade snapping turtles on international markets.
• Pricing regulations for selling electricity wholesale.
• A 59-page FDA rule on putting things into food on purpose will have first-year costs between $680 million and $930 million.
• Two new food labeling regulations will update the nutrition facts labels on most packaged food, and change the definition of serving sizes. They are a combined 307 pages, with annual costs ranging from $200 million to $800 million.
• The federal government has a Mexican Hass Avocado Import Program.

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

As mentioned earlier, something of a regulatory midnight rush is happening right now. The Federal Register topped 2,000 pages for the third time in four weeks—a rare accomplishment. It is now on pace to break last year’s all-time record. New rules range from flight simulators to the EPA’s in-house rules for corporate handouts.

On to the data:

• Last week, 68 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 58 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 28 minutes.
• With 1,274 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,250 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
• Last week, 2,065 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,170 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 32,131 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 81,967 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 11 such rules have been published so far in 2016, none in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $1.21 billion to $2.20 billion.
• 105 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
• So far in 2016, 250 new rules affect small businesses; 40 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• New energy conservation regultions for battery chargers.
• And external power supplies.
• The EPA has a new rule to prevent corruption, which is a surprising problem to have at an agency that dispenses billions of dollars in corporate welfare.
• Flight simulators.
• New restrictions on franchise-model businesses.
• E-cigarettes are now considered hazardous materials in airplane carry-on luggage. Somewhere, George W. Bush smiles.
• Some corrections to OSHA’s recent silica exposure rule.
• Trial lawyers will likely be very happy at the new job opportunities they will get from new Americans with Disabilities Act regulations.

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