Regulation of the Day: The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission

The sixth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state.

Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Department of State ($35 billion 2007 budget, 30,266 employees).

The United States is fighting two wars and a recession. A multi-trillion dollar unfunded Medicare/Social Security liability looms over our heads like the sword of Damocles. This year alone will see a budget deficit of at least $1.8 trillion.

In related news, the State Department has renewed its membership in the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission for the next two years. This story broke on page 29,013 of the 2009 Federal Register.

The folks at the IATTC are the people behind the dolphin-safe emblems emblazoned on canned tuna. Not sure what else they do, besides costing taxpayers more than $2 million in annual membership dues (see table in Appendix 5).