Inertia Wins!

Just another week in the world of regulation:

• 84 new final rules were published last week, up from 77 the previous week. That’s the equivalent of a new regulation precisely every 2 hours — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All in all, 1,114 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year. If this keeps up, the total tally for 2012 will be 3,674 new rules.
• 1,675 new pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register last week, for a total of 24,097 pages. At this pace, the 2012 Federal Register will run 78,238 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. The 17 such rules published so far in 2012 cost at least $15.2 billion. Two of the rules do not have cost estimates, and a third cost estimate does not give a total annual cost. We assume that rules lacking this basic transparency measure cost the bare minimum of $100 million per year. The true cost is almost certainly higher.
• No economically significant rules were published last week. There were a total of 16 significant actions last week, as defined by Executive Order 12866. So far, 131 significant final rules have been published in 2012.
• 21 of last week’s final rules affect small business. So far this year, 216 final rules affect small businesses. 33 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• Federal regulations require commercial drivers to undergo medical examinations to make sure they comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)’s physical qualification requirements. A new rule from the FMCSA “establishes a training, testing, and registration program that would certify medical professionals as qualified to conduct medical certification examinations of commercial drivers.”
• If you were thinking of importing pomegranates from Chile, there are some new regulations you should be aware of. From the summary, “the fruit would have to be grown in a place of production that is registered with the national plant protection organization of Chile and certified as having a low prevalence of Brevipalpus chilensis [aka the Chilean red false mite – ed.]. The fruit would have to undergo pre-harvest sampling at the registered production site. Following post-harvest processing, the fruit would have to be inspected in Chile at an approved inspection site. Each consignment of fruit would have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that the fruit had been found free of Brevipalpus chilensis based on field and packinghouse inspections.” If you don’t want to through all that, you may use pesticide.
• According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Three Forks springsnail is now an endangered species, and the San Bernadino springsnail is now a threatened species. The Three Forks springsnail is about a fifth of an inch long and is only found in part of a national forest in Apache County, Arizona. 17.2 acres of critical habitat have been designated for it. The San Bernadino springsnail is a tenth of an inch long. Its only known habitat is on a privately owned ranch in Cochise County, Arizona. It gets two acres of critical habitat; this may constitute a regulatory taking if it adversely affects the ranch owner.

For more data, updated daily, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

There are some strange regulations out there:

• Part of the 70,000-page tax code is devoted to alpacas. There is even a website, alpacas-4-sale.com, that asks, “Why not let Uncle Sam help you buy your alpacas?” Good question. After all, under section 179 of the IRS Code, you can deduct up to $24,000 worth of alpaca purchases per year.
• “Bipartisan” usually means “twice as stupid.” For example, the bipartisan transportation bill that passed the Senate and is now under House consideration contains a provision that would give the IRS the power to confiscate your passport if you owe back taxes.
• Barking man cited for violating local noise ordinance. Very, very close to a man-bites-dog story. It also sounds like the guy could use some help.
• A 6-year old Georgia child was handcuffed and put in a police station holding cell for throwing a temper tantrum at school. The local police chief is defending the action, claiming it was done by the book.
• California agencies are required to submit a slew of annual reports to state legislators. For example, California’s Department of Fish and Game is legally required to submit an annual report on how many kangaroos are hunted in Australia each year. Governor Jerry Brown unveiled a plan this week to eliminate 718 (!) of these “unnecessary bureaucratic” reports.
• The EPA spent part of its $10 billion-plus budget to create an online video game called Greenquest.

Just another week in the world of regulation:

• 77 new final rules were published last week, the same number as the previous week. That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 11 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All in all, 1,030 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year. If this keeps up, the total tally for 2012 will be 3,625 new rules.
• 1,475 new pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register last week, for a total of 22,426 pages. At this pace, the 2012 Federal Register will run 77,243 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. The 17 such rules published so far in 2012 cost at least $15.2 billion. Two of the rules do not have cost estimates, and a third cost estimate does not give a total annual cost. We assume that rules lacking this basic transparency measure cost the bare minimum of $100 million per year. The true cost is almost certainly higher.
• One economically significant rule was published last week. There were a total of 7 significant actions last week, as defined by Executive Order 12866. So far, 121 significant final rules have been published in 2012.
• 13 of last week’s final rules affect small business. So far this year, 195 final rules affect small businesses. 30 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule is part of the health care bill. It makes changes to the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Drug Benefit programs. Its cost is primarily increased government spending, not private sector compliance, so I am scoring it as zero-cost in our running tally. How much new spending is there? “We estimate that the Discount Program will increase Medicare costs by $1.3 billion during FY 2013 through FY 2018.” But that isn’t the only new spending.“The costs to the Federal government associated with these provisions, as scored in the April 15, 2011 final rule (76 FR 21432), were estimated to total $3.6 billion during FY 2011 through FY 2016.”
• The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service passed a rule liberalizing the federal government’s golden nematode policy.
• Our friends at the Agricultural Marketing Service are decreasing the assessment rates for pistachios and dried prunes (note the redundant phrasing; prunes are dried plums) grown in certain states. They are also raising the assessment rates for mangoes. Assessments are involuntary fees collected from farmers based on how much they grow.

For more data, updated daily, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.