CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

The accelerated pace of post-shutdown rulemaking continues, though still at a slower pace than under the Gingrich-Clinton showdowns. The total number of regulations issued this year also passed the 3,000 mark, ending the week at 3,042, while the 2013 Federal Register topped 65,000 pages.

On to the data:

• Last week, 92 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 78 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every hour and 50 minutes.
• All in all, 3,042 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,587 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,713 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 65,205 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 76,893 pages, which would be good for fifth all time. The current record is 81,405 pages, set in 2010.
• 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 at 35 so far in 2013.
• The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $6.42 billion to $11.82 billion.
• So far, 276 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 597 final rules affect small business; 81 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• The Education Department is making some economically significant changes to its student loan policies. The rule claims a $109 million savings in paperwork costs, and only minor budgetary impact. Taking the cost analysis at its word, our running compliance cost tally went down this week.
• The Food and Nutrition Service is working on a rule to reduce corruption and fraud in its SNAP food stamp program. The public comment period was extended to November 6.
• Migratory bird hunters will be interested in these four new regulations from the Fish and Wildlife Service.
• The General Services Administration is revising its government employee travel allowance policies.
• Due to adverse comments, the EPA has decided to entirely scrap a rule for the “Amendment to Standards and Practices for All Appropriate Inquiries.”
• Fifteen new endangered species in Hawaii.
• Five new endangered or threatened species in Colombia and Ecuador.

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