Inertia Wins!

It was a four-day work week due to Martin Luther King Day. This made for another light week on the regulatory front, with the Federal Register held under 1,000 pages for the first time since last year’s government shutdown.

On to the data:

• Last week, 43 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 57 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every three hours and 54 minutes.
• So far in 2014, 164 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 2,563 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 962 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
• Currently at 3,456 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for exactly 54,000 pages, which would be the lowest total since 1990.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Four such rules have been published so far this year, none of them in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations is currently $1.6 million. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
• 21 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 29 new rules affect small businesses. Six of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• FEMA released a series of flood elevation determinations for various communities at risk of flooding.
• The IRS issued a correction of an earlier rule on health insurance provider fees that removes a parenthesis.
• In Middle Township, New Jersey, there is a drawbridge that crosses the Grassy Sound. The federal government regulates when it goes up and down.
• The EPA approved air quality plans for West Virginia, Delaware, and Oregon.

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

It was another slow week, with only 57 new regulations; the usual number is closer to 70. Even so, agencies issued new rules for everything from how to shoe a horse to fees for avocado growers in south Florida. The Federal Register also broke the 3,000-page mark.

On to the data:

• Last week, 57 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 38 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 57 minutes.
• So far in 2014, 121 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 2,521 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 1,543 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
• Currently at 3,294 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 68,625 pages, which would be the lowest total since 2001.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Four such rules have been published so far this year, two of them in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations is currently $1.6 million. They affect several billion dollars of government spending.
• 20 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 21 new rules affect small businesses. Six of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• There are federal regulations for how to shoe a horse. A new rule outlines minimum penalties for violating them.
• If you grow avocados in south Florida, the Agricultural Marketing Service has raised its cut from 25 cents to 30 cents per bushel. It also plans to spend $175,000 this year on avocado research, along with nearly $120,000 in salaries and another $51,500 in employee benefits.
• If you are planning on importing archaeological artifacts from Bulgaria, read this new regulation first.
• New safety standards for bedside sleepers.
• New guidelines for lobster harvesting in Hawaii.
• The TSA issued security rules for aircraft repair stations.

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

The first full week of 2014 was a light one, despite more than 1,500 Federal Register pages. The number of new regulations was about half the usual number, and none of them meet the $100 million per year “economically significant” threshold.

On to the data:

• Last week, 38 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 four hours and 25 minutes.
• So far in 2014, 64 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 2,286 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 1,543 new pages were added to the Federal Register. It is on pace for 73,929 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. Two such rules have been published so far this year, none of them in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations is currently zero. They affect nearly $20 billion of government spending, but their impact estimates mostly avoid discussion of compliance costs, so I am scoring them as zero-cost for purposes of this tally.
• 15 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 14 new rules affect small businesses. Two of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• The Personnel Management Office is making changes to life insurance and health benefits for federal employees.
• The FAA had a busy week, with 9 new rules. See them all here.
• The EPA also issued 9 new rules. Most of them are air quality rules for various states, along with a rule for pesticides. See them all here.
• The SEC updated the job description for its General Counsel.
• The Cape Sable thoroughwort, a small plant native to Florida, is the unwitting recipient of nearly 11,000 acres of critical habitat in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties.

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