Inertia Wins!

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 61 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is down from 70 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 46 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All in all, 321 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,004 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,931 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 9,559 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 88,510 pages.
• 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 7 so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $2.518 billion to $4.768 billion.
• So far, 30 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 59 final rules affect small business; 7 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• One of last week’s two economically significant rules comes from the Rural Utilities Service. The agency plans to expand broadband Internet access in rural areas by guaranteeing loans. No expected cost is given, though the rule is quick to trumpet its expected benefits.
• The other economically significant rule comes from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services. It involves children’s health insurance, transparency reports, and financial disclosures for physicians. Despite acknowledging “a substantial amount of uncertainty in these [cost] estimates,” the rule nevertheless estimates its first-year labor costs to the nearest dollar: $193,037,104.
• If you grow tomatoes in Florida, the Agricultural Marketing Service will now charge you 2.4 cents per 25-pound carton, down from 3.7 cents.
• If you were planning on exporting nuclear materials to South Sudan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would rather you didn’t.
• There are new official winemaking regions in Oregon and Indiana.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 70 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 56 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 24 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All in all, 260 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 2,966 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,931 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 7,628 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 86,591 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, for a total 5 so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $2.325 billion to $4.575 billion.
• So far, 19 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 47 final rules affect small business; 4 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule comes from the EPA. It sets pollution standards for large-scale boilers at a cost of $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion per year.
• The IRS enacted a health insurance premium tax credit, as required by the health care bill.
• If you fish for king mackerel off of Florida’s east coast, your catch limit has been increased to 75 fish.
• The Coast Guard is changing its vessel identification system and its boating accident report database.
• The Interior Department has revised its Freedom of Information Act regulations.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection confiscates a lot of property. It is now building a  public website to advertise and keep better keep track of its takings.
• Airplane bathrooms are now required to have built-in oxygen masks that will drop down in the event of sudden cabin pressure change. Now you’ll have oxygen even if nature calls at a particularly bad time.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.