This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

The U.S. government hit its debt ceiling, setting up some congressional drama. Microsoft and Google joined the parade of antitrust targets announcing layoffs despite their alleged monopolies. President Biden is dealing with his own classified documents scandal. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from bodies of water to dry eye lasers.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 61 final regulations last week, after 59 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 45 minutes.
• With 161 final regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 3,096 final regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 3,168 new final regulations in 2022, and 3,257 in 2021.
• Agencies issued 31 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 48 the previous week.
• With 102 proposed regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 1,962 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,044 new proposed regulations in 2022, and 2,094 in 2021.
• Agencies published 372 notices last week, after 418 notices the previous week.
• With 1,011 notices so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 19,442 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 22,505 notices in 2022, and 20,018 in 2021.
• Last week, 1,408 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,365 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2023 contains 283 pages.
• With 3,909 pages so far, the 2023 Federal Register is on pace for 75,173 pages.
• For comparison, the 2022 Federal Register totals 80,756 pages; 2021’s is 74,352 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (subtracting 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. There is one such rule so far in 2023.
• This is on pace for 19 economically significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 43 economically significant rules in 2022, and 26 in 2021.
• The total cost of 2023’s economically significant regulations so far is $1.82 billion, according to numbers provided by the agencies themselves.
• For comparison, the running cost tally for 2022’s economically significant rules is for net costs of $45.28 billion to $78.05 billion. In 2021 net costs ranged from $13.54 billion to $19.36 billion. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There are 13 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far in 2023. This is on pace for 250 significant rules for the year.
• For comparison, there were 255 such new regulations in 2022, and 387 in 2021.
• So far in 2023, 26 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 500. Three of them are significant, on pace for 58.
• For comparison, in 2022 there were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 70 of them significant. 2021’s totals were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 101 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new regulations:

• A revised definition of “Waters of the United States.” CEI experts have plenty to say on this issue.
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified the NuScale small modular nuclear reactor design.
• An expansion of generic food label approval for meat, poultry, and eggs.
• The Federal Aviation Administration has increased the duration of aircraft registration.
• Inflation-adjusted civil penalties this week from: The Farm Credit Insurance Corporation;
• The National Transportation Safety Board;
• The Natural Resources Revenue Office;
• The Department of Veterans Affairs;
• The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network;
• The Department of the Interior ;
• Export controls for supercomputer parts.
• Energy conservation tests for dishwashers.
• People traveling from Uganda now have fewer arrival restrictions.
• The Engineer Corps is removing some obsolete bridge alteration rules.
• Emergent suicide care for veterans.
• Infectious waste incinerators.
• Competitive Postal Products.
• Strengthening organic enforcement.
• Reimbursing terrorist victims.
• Limits on exempted calls from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.
• Dry eye lasers.

The size of For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.