CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

It was a short week due to both MLK Day and a large snowstorm in the DC area, but regulators still issued new rules covering everything from potato proteins to Wisconsin air.

On to the data:

• Last week, 59 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 70 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 51 minutes.
• With 153 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 2,875 regulations in 2016.
• Last week, 1,213 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,617 pages the previous week.
• Currently at 3,933 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 70,233 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Two such rules have been published so far in 2016, none in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $321 million to $1.118 billion.
• 17 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
• So far in 2016, 39 new rules affect small businesses; 7 of them are classified as significant. 

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• New rules for exporting livestock and hatching eggs.
• Federal regulations for potato proteins.
• The Banggai cardinalfish is now a threatened species. Harrisson’s dogfish, a small shark native to coastal Australia, will not be listed on the threatened species list—though the Australian government considers it an endangered species.
• The FCC has a plan to revitalize AM radio.
• Microlending for farmers.
• The federal government now officially recognizes the Los Olivos District winemaking area in southern California.
• Iranian sanctions.
• Wisconsin air.
• NASA may officially no longer discriminate against disabled people.
• Another regulation for preventing collisions at sea.
• A combined 7,855 acres of critical habitat for two species of cactus.

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