CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

In addition to 100 final regulations, 62 proposed regulations made their way to the Federal Register last week.

On to the data:

Last week, 100 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 63 new final rules the previous week.
That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every one hour and 41 minutes.
So far in 2014, 1,912 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,464 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
Last week, 1,559 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
Currently at 42,130 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 76,322 pages. This 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. 22 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 $7.34 billion to $10.57 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
One hundred fifty-nine final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
So far in 2014, 355 new rules affect small businesses; 53 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

The IRS issued new rules for straddle-by-straddle identification.
New size requirements for oranges grown in Texas.
New handling requirements for potatoes in Washington State.
Energy efficiency testing procedures for refrigerators and freezers.
A new rule from HUD is ominously titled “Removal of HOPE for Homeowners Program Regulations.”
It was a busy week at the EPA, which issued 20 new regulations last week.
The Coast Guard chipped in another 18 regulations.

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