Inertia Wins!

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 68 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is down from 71 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 28 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,366 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,462 new final rules.
• Last week, 2,598 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 31,766 pages. This is roughly double the average pace.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 78,629 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 (the first since April 18), 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, 94 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 246 final rules affect small business; 21 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant regulation is part of the health care bill. It extends the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) program. Insurers who take on patients enrolled in the program are subjected to strict price controls, but in return the government is spending up to $5 billion to make up the shortfall. As I noted earlier, some insurers are likely to reject PCIP enrollees altogether, which would have the unintended consequence of making harder, not easier, for people with pre-existing conditions to get insurance. Since the $5 billion is government spending and not compliance costs, and the rule refuses to quantify administrative costs, I am scoring this rule as zero-cost in our running tally.
• This is only a proposed rule, but still worth noting. New airworthiness directives for Segelflugzeugbau sailplanes are on the way. Fun bit of trivia: Segelflugzeugbau has made 35 appearances in the Federal Register since 1994.
• Only the tax code is more complicated than America’s immigration policy. Fortunately, the State Department is simplifying things a bit for immigrants by eliminating Form OF-224. It is used for “recording an alien’s entitlement to an immigrant visa classification.”
• The federal government has a Colorado Potato Administrative Committee. It is modifying its membership structure.
• New critical habitat for umtanum desert buckwheat and Chite Bluffs bladderpod.
• The FCC is citing the Communications Act of 1934 to justify its regulation of Internet browsers. This should end well.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board weighed in this morning on the issue of regulation, citing a few numbers from the forthcoming 20^th anniversary edition of Wayne Crews’ annual Ten Thousand Commandments report. Here’s a taste:

For two decades, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has tracked the growth of new federal regulations. In his 20th anniversary edition this week, he’ll report that pages in the Code of Federal Regulations hit an all-time high of 174,545 in 2012, an increase of more than 21% during the last decade.

Relying largely on government data, Mr. Crews estimates that in 2012 the cost of federal rules exceeded $1.8 trillion, roughly equal to the GDP of Canada. These costs are embedded in nearly everything Americans buy. Mr. Crews calculates these costs at $14,768 per household, meaning that red tape is now the second largest item in the typical family budget after housing.

Read the whole thing here.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 71 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 64 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 22 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,298 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,458 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,377 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 29,188 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 76,011 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. For the fourth week in a row, no such rules were published last week, for a total of 12 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, 91 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 237 final rules affect small business; 21 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• Sea World San Diego holds regular fireworks shows during the summer. The Coast Guard issued a rule creating safety zones in nearby waters. One imagines that the city government, or even Sea World itself could manage the task without making a federal case of it.
• The FCC is revising its signal booster rules.
• The DEA is temporarily classifying three synthetic cannibinoids as Schedule I controlled substances. Schedule I is defined in part as having “no currently accepted medical use in the United States” and a “high potential for abuse.” It is the DEA’s most severe category. Other Schedule I drugs include heroin and cocaine. This may represent a bit of an overreaction on the DEA’s part.
• If you own a private land mobile radio station below 800 MHz, be aware of new FCC rules.
• The Magazine Mountain Shagreen is no longer on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. This small snail, native to Arkansas, is the first invertebrate to be delisted. Good news all around.
• The Agricultural Marketing Service is relaxing size and grade requirements for Valencia oranges.
• The AMS also amended its path-breaking Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information Order.
• Relatedly, the USDA is seeking nominees for the American Lamb Board if you’d like to be on it.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.