CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

The 2014 Federal Register climbed past the 34,000-page mark last week, adding nearly 80 final regulations, along with 48 proposed regulations.

On to the data:

• Last week, 79 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 75 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and eight minutes.
• So far in 2014, 1,506 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,303 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 1,351 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
• Currently at 34,170 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 74,935 pages, which would be the lowest total since 2009.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 19 such rules have been published so far this year, none of them in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations currently ranges from $2.33 billion to $2.72 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
• One hundred and nineteen final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 285 new rules affect small businesses; 42 of them are classified as significant. 

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• The Small Business Administration is adjusting its definition of a small business to account for inflation. Businesses above a certain size (which varies by sector) do not qualify for the SBA’s preferential treatment, and must seek rents elsewhere.
• The FCC sets the rate which prison inmates are charged for phone calls.
• California’s olive growers will enjoy a lower assessment rate on their crops going forward. For every ton of olives grown they will owe the Agricultural Marketing Service $15.21, down from $21.16. The money funds the federal government’s California Olive Committee, and websites such as this one.
• On June 11, the FDA confirmed an effective date of May 13 for an earlier food additive regulation from April.
• The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse is now an endangered species.
• Fireworks season is heating up. The Coast Guard issued 18 rules this week, many creating temporary safety zones around local fireworks shows near water.

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