Inertia Wins!

The Memorial Day-shortened work week still saw the Federal Register grow by 1,200 pages, with more than 60 new regulations published.

On to the data:

• Last week, 62 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 66 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 43 minutes.
• So far in 2014, 1,352 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,250 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 1,200 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
• Currently at 31,167 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 74,921 pages, which would be the lowest total since 2009.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 18 such rules have been published so far this year, one of them in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations currently ranges from $1.82 billion to $2.19 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
• 116 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 265 new rules affect small businesses; 39 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• A new Affordable Care Act regulation is this week’s economically significant rule. Its estimated cost ranges from $48.78 to $49.52 million. The balance of the $100 million threshold for economic significance comes from estimated benefits.
• Many of the government’s procurement and contractor regulations have nothing to do with price or quality. For example, one new rule from the Defense Department, GSA, and NASA bases contractor decisions in part on executive pay.
• New energy conservation standards for electric motors.
• Since 1989, the U.S. military has had a Family Advocacy Command Assistance Team. A new regulation updates some of FACAT’s policies and procedures (this one is actually from a few weeks ago, but I just noticed it this week)
• New kiwifruit handling regulations. This is the 189^th federal kiwifruit regulation to appear since 1994. Read them all here.
• New grading requirements for Valencia oranges.
• If you’ve ever wanted to hunt for double-crested cormorants, now’s your chance.

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

The Federal Register passed the 30,000-page mark on Friday, at least by unadjusted page count. After accounting for skips and blank pages, the adjusted count, which this series tracks, stands at a still-impressive 29,967 pages, and will shoot past 30,000 pages on Tuesday.

On to the data:

• Last week, 66 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 77 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 33 minutes.
• So far in 2014, 1,290 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,225 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 1,397 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
• Currently at 29,967 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 74,918 pages, which would be the lowest total since 2009.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 17 such rules have been published so far this year, one of them in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations currently ranges from $1.77 billion to $2.14 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
• 110 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 254 new rules affect small businesses; 36 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The rule says nary a word about compliance costs, so I am scoring it as zero-cost for our running compliance cost tally. But it does claim to save more than $1.6 billion in government spending over the period 2015-24 in the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D programs.
• The EPA revised its standards for venting refrigerants.
• The EPA also issued air quality regulations for California, Idaho,  Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Oregon.
• Implementation of the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement continues.
• Advantame is now allowed as a food additive.
• The southern white rhino is now a threatened species.

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

Another normal week in the regulatory world, with nearly 80 rules covering everything from fireworks shows to walk-in freezers.

On to the data:

• Last week, 77 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 58 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 11 minutes.
• So far in 2014, 1,224 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,221 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 1,772 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
• Currently at 28,570 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 75,185 pages, which would be the lowest total since 2009.
• 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 this year, one of them in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations currently ranges from $1.77 billion to $2.14 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
• 104 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 245 new rules affect small businesses; 33 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule comes from the Defense Department. It pays for a number of voluntary outside educational programs for its employees, which accounted for $84 billion in spending during FY 2013. Administrative costs and other compliance issues cost an estimated $413,500, which is all that I’m adding to our running compliance cost tally.
• On May 17, there was a fireworks show in the San Diego Bay. The federal government established a safety zone near where the fireworks were set off.
• If you grow cotton and would like to know what grade it is, be glad the Agricultural Marketing Service is keeping its cotton grading prices the same as last year – $2.20 per bale.
• Ambient air quality standards for Iowa.
• Georgia, too.
• Energy efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers.

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