CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation

This week in the world of regulation:

• It was a three-day work week because of New Year’s celebrations, but agencies still managed to publish 28 new final rules. This is down from 54 rules the previous week, which was shortened by Christmas.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation precisely every six hours — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 28 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 2,333 new final rules.
• Last week, 850 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 76,434 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 70,834 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they impose costs of $100 million or more in a given year. No such rules have been published so far in 2013.
• So far, one final rule that meets the broader definition of “significant” has been published in 2013.
• So far this year, four final rules affect small business; none of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• The federal government has a United Soybean Board. A new regulation revises its representation requirements.
• The southern willow flycatcher is the unwitting recipient of 1,227 stream miles of critical habitat.
• The Drug Enforcement Administration is establishing codes for 26 synthetic drugs. They will all be classified as Schedule I drugs.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.