CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

The FCC, inspired by a law passed in 1934, unveiled its controversial plan to regulate the Internet as a public utility. Beyond that it was a week like any other, with new regulations covering everything from biomass crops to walk-in freezers.

On to the data:

• Last week, 65 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 40 new regulations the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 28 minutes.
• So far in 2015, 416 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 2,667 new regulations this year, which would be roughly 1,000 fewer rules than the usual total.
• Last week, 1,715 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,118 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 11,068 pages, the 2015 Federal Register is on pace for 70,949 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Five such rules have been published so far this year, one in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance cost of 2015’s economically significant regulations ranges from $647 million to $700 million for the current year.
• Forty-two final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2015, 97 new rules affect small businesses; 15 of them are classified as significant. 

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• The federal government runs a Biomass Crop Assistance Program. A new rule reduces the amount of subsidies farmers can claim under the program.
• Recordkeeping and reporting requirements for medical devices.
• The FCC issued a correction to last year’s rule intended to improve 911 service.
• The Department of Health and Human Services is outlining its medical care payment policies for 2016, in accordance with the Affordable Care Act.
• As part of the federal government’s ongoing quest to shrink its Department of Redundancy Department, it is consolidating three agricultural land-use programs into a single program.
• A 13-page definition of the word “spouse.”
• Energy conservation standards for walk-in freezers.

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