Category Archives: regulation

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 53 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is down from 90 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 3 hours and 10 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All in all, 464 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,195 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,037 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 12,571 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 87,299 pages.
• 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, for a total of 8 so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $2.532 billion to $4.810 billion.
• So far, 45 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 84 final rules affect small business; 8 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• People with psychiatric problems will have an easier time finding federal jobs as of March 25.
• Volunteer pilots sometimes give “transportation for an individual or organ for medical purposes” for free. These are called charitable medical flights. The FAA regulates them.
• 11 new rules from the EPA, from particulate matter to reporting greenhouse gases.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 90 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 61 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every hour and 52 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All in all, 411 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,261 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,975 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 11,554 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 90,110 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. One such rule was published last week, for a total of 8 so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $2.532 billion to $4.810 billion.
• So far, 42 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 75 final rules affect small business; 8 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule comes from the Education Department, and has to do with parental consent paperwork for children with disabilities. First-year costs of implementing the changes will cost at least $14.088 million, and as much as $41.144 million.
• New OSHA health and safety regulations for construction sites.
• A while ago, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned phthalate from children’s toys. It is now allowed to be used for components “not accessible to a child through normal and reasonably foreseeable use and abuse of such product.”
• On February 16, Sea World San Diego is putting on a fireworks show. For some reason, the Coast Guard instead of a local agency is establishing a safety zone in nearby waters.
• The FAA has issued new airthworthiness directives for Lindstrand hot air balloons. In all, the FAA issued 21 final rules last week.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 61 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is down from 70 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 46 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All in all, 321 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,004 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,931 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 9,559 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 88,510 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Two such rules were published last week, for a total 7 so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $2.518 billion to $4.768 billion.
• So far, 30 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 59 final rules affect small business; 7 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• One of last week’s two economically significant rules comes from the Rural Utilities Service. The agency plans to expand broadband Internet access in rural areas by guaranteeing loans. No expected cost is given, though the rule is quick to trumpet its expected benefits.
• The other economically significant rule comes from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services. It involves children’s health insurance, transparency reports, and financial disclosures for physicians. Despite acknowledging “a substantial amount of uncertainty in these [cost] estimates,” the rule nevertheless estimates its first-year labor costs to the nearest dollar: $193,037,104.
• If you grow tomatoes in Florida, the Agricultural Marketing Service will now charge you 2.4 cents per 25-pound carton, down from 3.7 cents.
• If you were planning on exporting nuclear materials to South Sudan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would rather you didn’t.
• There are new official winemaking regions in Oregon and Indiana.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 70 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 56 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 24 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All in all, 260 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 2,966 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,931 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 7,628 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 86,591 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. One such rule was published last week, for a total 5 so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $2.325 billion to $4.575 billion.
• So far, 19 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 47 final rules affect small business; 4 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule comes from the EPA. It sets pollution standards for large-scale boilers at a cost of $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion per year.
• The IRS enacted a health insurance premium tax credit, as required by the health care bill.
• If you fish for king mackerel off of Florida’s east coast, your catch limit has been increased to 75 fish.
• The Coast Guard is changing its vessel identification system and its boating accident report database.
• The Interior Department has revised its Freedom of Information Act regulations.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection confiscates a lot of property. It is now building a  public website to advertise and keep better keep track of its takings.
• Airplane bathrooms are now required to have built-in oxygen masks that will drop down in the event of sudden cabin pressure change. Now you’ll have oxygen even if nature calls at a particularly bad time.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 56 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 54 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation precisely every 3 hours — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All in all, 190 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 2,774 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,411 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 5,697 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 83,780 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. One such rule was published last week, for a total 4 so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $925 million to $2.9754 billion.
• So far, 15 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 34 final rules affect small business; 2 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule comes from the Department of Health and Human Services. It weighs in at 138 pages, and will have first-year costs of $114 million to $225.4 million. It affects the security and privacy of medical records.
• The EPA was busy last week, issuing 15 new final regulations.
• NASA is changing its procedures for establishing secure areas. You will still be required to stay away from the launch pad when it’s in use.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is creating uniform procedures for its state highway safety grant programs.
• If you buy your citrus crop insurance from the federal government, you should be aware of a correction issued on Tuesday regarding a recent rule.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

CEI has been pushing a common-sense regulatory reform idea for years: Congress should vote on all regulations with an annual cost of $100 million or more. Agencies don’t always wait for Congress to pass a bill before issuing rules; we call this regulation without representation. One way to mitigate the problem is to require members of Congress to go on record as supporting or opposing these rules. The Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny, or REINS Act, introduced today in the House by Rep. Todd Young (no relation), would do just that. REINS is actually quite modest, since it only covers major rules. But it is a needed step in the fight to end regulation without representation. In a press release, Wayne Crews had this to say:

“Congress needs to take responsibility for the costs and results of federal programs,” he continued. “REINS would induce members of Congress to acknowledge and affirm that the costs of agency rules, now approaching $2 trillion dollars annually in the aggregate, are tolerable to them and to their constituents before they go into effect.”

Crews raised one concern with the bill: It is limited to major rules, a designation many rules deserve but escape. “Agencies, both executive and independent, often don’t own up to the costs of their rules at all. The Federal Communications Commission’s sweeping net neutrality order and rules stemming from Dodd-Frank financial legislation are prime examples,” Crews explained. “So REINS should also hold for rules that a member designates as particularly controversial, not just ‘major’ ones.”

“REINS-style reform is long overdue,” he noted. “Bills requiring Congress to affirm what regulators end up doing after they ‘pass the bill’ and later ‘find out what is in it’ have been proposed since the 1990s. If Congress can’t cut spending to grow the economy, maybe it can stem the regulatory burden to accomplish the same goal, which would lessen budget woes as a side effect.”

Here are my comments:

“There is too much regulation without representation in this country. In an average year, Congress will pass a little over 100 bills into law, while regulatory agencies will pass more than 3,500 new regulations.

“It’s easy to see why members of Congress like agencies to do their job for them. If a regulation turns out to be unpopular, or more costly than expected, they can just shift the blame to, say, the EPA or FCC. It’s well past time for Congress to take its lawmaking responsibility seriously again. REINS is the first step in that process.”

This is a bill to keep an eye on. REINS passed the House last Congress. But it stalled in the Senate, where all good bills go to die. May reformers have better luck this time.

Read the entire press release here. Rep. Young’s office has a press release here.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 54 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 52 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation precisely every 3 hours and 7 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All in all, 134 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 2,717 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,676 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 4,286 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 82,424 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Two such rules were published last week, for a total 3 so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $811 million to $2.75 billion.
• So far, 11 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 29 final rules affect small business; one of them is a significant rule.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• One of last week’s economically significant rules comes from the EPA. It sets air quality standards for particulate matter. Depending on how strict the standard is set and what methodology one uses, the rule’s cost in the year 2020 could be as little as $11 million, or as high as $1.7 billion. The fact that the given range is more than a hundredfold says much about the precision of regulatory cost estimates.
• The other economically significant rule comes from the Patent and Trademark Office. It is adjusting the fees it charges patent applicants, and is working to shorten the patent-issuing process. It estimates the cost of this rule to be $800 million.
• The Energy Department has issued new testing procedures for microwave oven energy efficiency.
• The prolific FAA issued nine final rules this week, making for 32 on the year as of January 18.
• HUD published new standards for roof trusses in manufactured homes.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.