Inertia Wins!

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 64 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 62 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 38 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,227 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,445 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,621 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 27,811 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 76,404 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. For the third 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, 88 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 228 final rules affect small business; 21 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• The Coast Guard regulates when a drawbridge in Nassau, New York goes up and down; local authorities must not be up to the task.
• The IRS has updated its information reporting requirements for employers.
• The EPA has issued new air quality plans for Texas (here and here), Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Alaska.
• New irradiation rules for animal feed and pet food.
• The Postal Regulatory Commission is changing its official seal. Click here to see what it looks like.
• Lorcaserin, a weight-loss drug with the trade name Belviq, is now a Schedule IV controlled substance.
• The Small Business Administration has removed size requirements for contracts that small businesses owned by women may bid for.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 62 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is down from 66 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 43 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,163 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,451 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,250 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 26,190pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 76,134 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 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, 85 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 216 final rules affect small business; 20 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• If you are contractor for the Energy Department, there is a new rule that affects your legal representation.
• Particulate matter standards for the Philadelphia-Wilmington area.
• New fishing regulations for spiny dogfish.
• The federal government has a longstanding policy of encouraging people to live in dangerously flood-prone areas by selling them flood insurance at below-market prices. Fortunately, they will cease selling such insurance in several areas.
• 18 new FAA regulations this week. 241 on the year.
• The federal government has a California Olive Committee. It has decreased its assessment rate on that state’s olive growers from $31.32 to $21.16 per ton.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.