CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a slow week despite more than 1,300 Federal Register pages, with just 36 proposed regulations and fewer than 50 final regulations, ranging from spearmint oil to flying over Baghdad.
On to the data:
- Last week, 46 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 65 the previous week.
- That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every three hours and 39 minutes.
- So far in 2015, 1,111 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 2,955 new regulations this year, which would be several hundred fewer rules than the usual total of 3,500-plus.
- Last week, 1,333 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,609 pages the previous week.
- Currently at 28,039 pages, the 2015 Federal Register is on pace for 74,572 pages.
- Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Eight such rules have been published so far this year, none in the past week.
- The total estimated compliance cost of 2015’s economically significant regulations ranges from $917 million to $970 million for the current year.
- 92 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
- So far in 2015, 196 new rules affect small businesses; 30 of them are classified as significant.
Highlights from selected final rules published last week:
- The September 1 date for low-powered television stations to transition to digital broadcasting has been delayed until further notice.
- If you’re a coal miner, there are federal regulations for your doctor appointments.
- The FCC is going to hold an auction for FM broadcast construction permits.
- Increased assessment rates for grape growers in California.
- Another spearmint oil handling regulation. That makes 145 since 1994.
- An “enhancement” of car rental policies for federal employees.
- Don’t fly over Baghdad.
For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.