This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

The Ukrainian people have proven more resilient that the Kremlin anticipated, though Putin’s invasion continued. President Biden gave his State of the Union speech. Employment grew by 628,000 jobs in January, once again closely tracking the virus’ waning trajectory. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from repossessed cars to voluntary recalls.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 71 final regulations last week, after 44 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 38 minutes.
• With 550 final regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 3,198 final regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 3,257 new final regulations in 2021, President Biden’s first year, and 3,218 in 2020, President Trump’s final year.
• Agencies issued 53 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 37 the previous week.
• With 383 proposed regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 2,227 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,094 new proposed regulations in 2021, and 2,102 in 2020.
• Agencies published 452 notices last week, after 361 notices the previous week.
• With 3,834 notices so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 22,291 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 20,018 notices in 2021. 2020’s total was 22,480.
• Last week, 1,628 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,499 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2022 contains 292 pages.
• With 12,554 pages so far, the 2022 Federal Register is on pace for 72,988 pages.
• For comparison, the 2021 Federal Register totals 74,352 pages, and 2020’s is 87,352 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 are three such rules so far in 2021, none from the last week.
• This is on pace for 17 economically significant regulations in 2022.
• For comparison, there were 26 economically significant rules in 2021 and five in 2020.
• The total cost of 2022’s economically significant regulations so far is $187 million. However, only one of the three such rules issued this year gives the required cost estimates, so this figure is incomplete.
• For comparison, the running cost tally for 2021’s economically significant rules ranges from $13.54 billion to $19.36 billion. The 2020 figure ranges from net savings of between $2.04 billion and $5.69 billion, mostly from estimated savings on federal spending. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There are 41 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far in 2022. This is on pace for 238 significant rules for the year.
• For comparison, there were 387 such new regulations in 2021, and 79 in 2020.
• So far in 2022, 156 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 907. Fourteen of them are significant, on pace for 81.
• For comparison, there were 912 rules in 2021 affecting small businesses, with 101 of them classified as significant. 2020’s totals were 668 rules affecting small businesses, 26 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new regulations:

• Sanctions against Russia.
• More sanctions against Russia.
• Repossessing automobiles.
• Agency Procedure Concerning the Treatment of Foreign State Respondents at the Initiation of the Enforcement Process.
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency has new regulations for making regulations.
• The Tariff of Tolls along the St. Lawrence Seaway.
• Forwarding mail.
• A delay in new labeling rules for tobacco products.
• The Rural Energy for America Program.
• Oxygen cylinders for airplanes.
• The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board is making its guidance documents less transparent to the public.
• The peppered chub is now an endangered species.
• Amendments to the list of allowed and forbidden substances in organic foods.
• Food and Drug Administration guidance for initiating voluntary recalls.
• Lighter commercial fuel oil.

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