The partial shutdown ended on Friday, though only on a three-week deal. This likely will not show up in the Federal Register’s page and rule counts until mid- to late-week, given that it usually operates on a 2-3 day lag. Something else important happened last week: Venezuela’s dictatorship might be ending. It’s too early to cheer, but opposition leader Juan Guaidó, if his claim to legitimacy is successful, seems decidedly more liberal than the Chavez/Maduro regime. Time will tell.
Regulations that did appear during the week range from cockpit displays to crabbing vessels.
On to the data:
- Last week, 4 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 10 the previous week.
- That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 42 hours.
- Federal agencies have issued 16 final regulations in 2019. At that pace, there will be 236 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,367 regulations.
- Last week, 211 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 85 pages the previous week.
- The 2019 Federal Register totals 406 pages. It is on pace for 5,971 pages. The 2018 total was 68,082 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (which subtracts skips, jumps, and blank pages) is 96,994, set in 2016.
- Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. No such rules have been published this year, with just one since last June 12. Six such rules were published in 2018.
- The running compliance cost tally for 2019’s economically significant regulations is currently zero. The 2018 total ranges from $220.1 million to $2.54 billion, depending on discount rates and other assumptions.
- Agencies have published no final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year. 2018’s total was 108 significant final rules.
- So far in 2019, 2 new rules affect small businesses; none of them are classified as significant. 2018’s totals were 660 rules affecting small businesses, 29 of them significant.
All of last week’s new final regulations:
- A Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive for cockpit displays.
- The Labor Department is inflation-adjusting its penalties for civil offenses.
- Tracking workplace injuries.
- Alaskan crabbing vessels acting as fishing vessels.
For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.
Inertia Wins! 