Inertia Wins!

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 80 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 76 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 6 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 2,750 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,718 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,622 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 59,578 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 79,227 pages, which would be good for fourth all time. The current record is 81,405 pages, set in 2010.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Five such rules were published last week, for a total of 28 so far in 2013.
• The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $6.39 billion to $11.62 billion.
• So far, 243 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 520 final rules affect small business; 70 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• The Fish and Wildlife Service issued two more sets of economically significant migratory bird hunting regulations, each carrying the standard “estimated consumer surplus across all flyways of $317.8-$416.8 million.” As usual, since this is not a compliance cost, I am scoring both rules as zero-cost in our running compliance cost tally.
• The FDA issued an economically significant rule requiring medical devices to have a unique identifier. The estimated cost is $84.1-85.7 million.
• The remaining two economically significant regulations come from the Federal Contract Compliance Programs Office. Both rules cover affirmative action hiring practices that government contractors must abide by. The first rule, concerning contractor hiring policies for employees with disabilities, has estimated first-year costs of $349,510,926 to $659,877,833. Recurring costs in future years will range from either $162,371,816 to $395,258,387 or $242,345,778 to $480,476,442.
• The second affirmative action rule covers contractors’ hiring policies for various categories of military veterans. Its estimated first year costs range from $177,296,772 to $483,560,138. Recurring costs in future years will be an estimated $120,386,058 to $347,617,359.
• The EPA issued air quality rules for Maryland, Utah, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California again, and the outer continental shelf off the California coast.
• The fluted kidneyshell and the slabside pearlymussel are both considered endangered species. Both species of mussel also received designated critical habitats.
• The grotto sculpin, a small fish, was also classified as endangered and given designated critical habitat.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 76 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 61 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 13 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 2,670 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,706 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,339 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 57,956 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 79,175 pages, which would be good for fourth all time. The current record is 81,405 pages, set in 2010.
• 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 of 28 so far in 2013.
• The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $5.78 billion to $10.39 billion.
• So far, 231 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 510 final rules affect small business; 67 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• The first economically significant rule of the week is part of the Affordable Care Act. It enacts a $548 million “Reduction in Disproportionate Share Hospital Allotment.” Since this affects government spending and not compliance costs, I am scoring this rule as zero-cost in our running compliance cost tally. The rule does add new reporting requirements, but without estimating the paperwork and man-hour costs of complying with them.
• The other economically significant rule is another rule for migratory bird hunting, and includes the same estimated consumer surplus of $317.8 to $416.8 million as all of this year’s other migratory bird hunting regulations. Since the rule says nothing about compliance costs, I am also scoring this rule as zero-cost.
• New requirements for mango imports from Australia include “a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration that the conditions for importation have been met.”
• Lawyers rejoice: prostate cancer is now on the official list of World Trade Center-related health conditions.
• The Mount Charleston blue butterfly, a Nevada native with a one-inch wingspan, is now an endangered species. The Fish and Wildlife Service will soon be designating critical habitat.
• The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued a 24-page rule defining “retail pet store.”
• Regulations are often behind the curve; the Agricultural Marketing Service is updating its food container regulations to “align the standards to reflect current industry practices.”
• If you grow Vidalia onions in Georgia, you are required to submit a monthly report to the Agricultural Marketing Service. A new rule establishes “the first business day after the tenth day of the month” as the report’s due date.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.