CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
This week in the world of regulation:
- Last week, 38 new final rules were published, down from 88 the previous week. Note that it was a short work week due to the Columbus Day holiday.
- That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 4 hours and 25 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- All in all, 2,987 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
- If this keeps up, the total tally for 2012 will be 3,823 new rules.
- Last week, 1,187 new pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register, for a total of 62,322 pages.
- At its current pace, the 2012 Federal Register will run 78,690 pages.
- Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. The 40 such rules published so far in 2012 have compliance costs of at least $17.4 billion. Two of the rules do not have cost estimates, and a third cost estimate does not give a total annual cost. We assume that rules lacking this basic transparency measure cost the bare minimum of $100 million per year. The true cost is almost certainly higher.
- No economically significant rules were published last week.
- So far, 296 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2012.
- So far this year, 565 final rules affect small business; 83 of them are significant rules.
Highlights from final rules published last week:
- The FAA has clarified the definition of “night.”
- Banks with more than $10 billion of assets are now required to take annual stress tests.
- According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the area around Wallops Island and Chinocteague Inlet is a danger zone.
- If you are an amateur rocket operator and you were thinking of applying for a voluntary license, a relevant rule’s effective date has been delayed.
For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.