CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 56 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 54 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation precisely every three hours — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 190 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 2,774 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,411 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 5,697 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 83,780 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. One such rule was published last week, for a total four so far in 2013.
• The total compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $925 million to $2.9754 billion.
• So far, 15 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 34 final rules affect small business; two of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule comes from the Department of Health and Human Services. It weighs in at 138 pages, and will have first-year costs of $114 million to $225.4 million. It affects the security and privacy of medical records.
• The EPA was busy last week, issuing 15 new final regulations.
• NASA is changing its procedures for establishing secure areas. You will still be required to stay away from the launch pad when it’s in use.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is creating uniform procedures for its state highway safety grant programs.
• If you buy your citrus crop insurance from the federal government, you should be aware of a correction issued on Tuesday regarding a recent rule.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.