Inertia Wins!

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 93 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 72 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every  hour and 48 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,592 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,522 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,536 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 36,027 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 78,320 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. No such rules were published for the third consecutive week, for a total of 13 so far in 2013.
• The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $5.58 billion to $10.19 billion.
• So far, 109 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 291 final rules affect small business; 26 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• The federal government is altering drawbridge schedules in New York City; Boston; Stillwater, Minnesota; Westport, Connecticut; Stockton, California; Norfolk, Virginia; and Lawrence, New York.
• If you make alcoholic beverages between 18 and 23 percent alcohol by volume and contain artificial coloring, you should be aware of this regulation.
• The Affordable Care Act contains an excise tax on tanning. It came into effect on Tuesday.
• The EPA is revising its “approved motor vehicle emissions budgets” for Lima, Ohio.
• The EPA is also revising its ambient air quality standards for Northern Virginia.
• A new FCC rule takes 7 pages to define “auditory assistance device.”
• Not to be outdone, the FDIC takes 26 pages to define “Predominantly engaged in activities that are financial in nature or incidental thereto.”
• Winemakers may now print a wine’s alcohol content on a label other than the brand label if they wish.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 72 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 2 hours and 20 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,499 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,463 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,563 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 34,491 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 78,389 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. No such rules were published for the second consecutive week, for a total of 13 so far in 2013.
• The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $5.58 billion to $10.19 billion.
• So far, 108 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 265 final rules affect small business; 23 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• Non-economists have been pushing Buy-American provisions for years. It turns out there are also non-economists in the Indian Affairs Department, since a new rule requires the government to set aside a certain amount of procurement contracts for Indian-owned businesses.
• There is a drawbridge in Tacoma, Washington that spans the City Waterway. The federal government sets its schedule.
• The federal government sells pecan insurance. A new rule corrects errors made in a previous rule from February.
• The EPA is revising motor vehicle emissions budgets for Cincinnati suburbs in Kentucky.
• More regulations for avoiding collisions at sea.
• The FCC issued new guidelines for safe levels of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.