State Of The Union? Try “Over-Regulated”

In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama cannot be expected to pledge to roll back government in any manner whatsoever, a stance that helps account for the state of our union.

We’ve often addressed the heavy flow of rules out of Washington, but below I’ve compiled and highlighted some of the notable ones recently completed and on tap.

Just scan the list for your favorite agency; and remember, this is just a sample.

Department of Agriculture

• Mandatory country-of-origin labeling of beef, pork, lamb, fish, and peanuts
• National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs: Nutrition Standards for All Foods Sold in School; and Certification of Compliance With Meal Requirements for the National School Lunch Program (as required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010)
• Rural Energy for America Program
• Rural Broadband Access Loans and Loan Guarantees
• Inspection regulations for eggs and egg products
• Performance standards for ready-to-eat processed meat and poultry products
• New poultry slaughter inspection regulations
• Regulations concerning importation of unmanufactured wood articles (solid-wood packing material)
• Bovine spongiform encephalopathy: minimal-risk regions and importation of commodities
• Nutrition labeling of single-ingredient and on ground or chopped meat and poultry products

Department of Commerce

• Right whale ship strike reduction
• Taking of marine mammals incidental to conducting of geological and geophysical exploration of mineral and energy resources on the outer continental shelf

Department of Health and Human Services

• Substances prohibited from use in animal food or feed; Registration of food and animal feed facilities
• Produce Safety Regulation
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Standards Related to Essential Health Benefits, Actuarial Value, and Accreditation; and Medicaid, Exchanges, and Children’s Health Insurance Programs: Eligibility, Appeals, and Other Provisions
• Price Regulation: Home Health Prospective Payment System Rate for CY 2014; Changes to the End-Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System for CY 2014; Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled Nursing Facilities; Prospective Payment System for Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities
• Revision of the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels: Serving Sizes of Foods That Can Reasonably Be Consumed in One Eating Occasion; Dual Column Labeling; and Modifying the Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed
• Nutrition labeling for food sold in vending machines and for restaurant menu items
• Food labeling: transfatty acids in nutrition labeling, nutrient content claims, and health claims
• “Tobacco Products” Subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as Amended by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
• Prevention of Salmonella enteritidis in shell eggs
• Good manufacturing practice in manufacturing, packing, or holding dietary ingredients and dietary supplements
• Criteria for determining whether a drug is considered usually self-administered
• Requirements for long-term care facilities: hospice services
• Bar-code label requirements for human drug products and blood
• Pediatric dosing for various over-the-counter cough, cold, and allergy products
• Fire-safety and sprinkler requirements for long-term care facilities

Department of Homeland Security

• Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, providing government access to passenger reservation information
• Passenger Screening Using Advanced Imaging Technology
• Importer security filing
• Air cargo screening and inspection of towing vessels
• Minimum standards for driver’s licenses and ID cards acceptable to federal agencies
• United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program, which is authorized to collect biometric data from travelers and to expand to the 50 most highly trafficked land border ports

Department of the Interior

• Revised Requirements for Well Plugging and Platform Decommissioning
• Increased Safety Measures for Oil and Gas Operations on the Outer Continental Shelf

Department of Justice

• Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability: Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Governments
• National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape

Department of Labor

• Group Health Plans and Health Insurance Issuers Relating to Coverage of Preventive Services Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
• Walking Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems (Slips, Trips, and Fall Prevention)
• Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to Domestic Service
• Improved Fee Disclosure for Pension Plans
• Occupational exposure to crystalline silica
• Rules regarding confined spaces in construction: preventing suffocation and explosions
• Implementation of the health care access, portability, and renewability provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
• Hearing conservation program for construction workers
• Cranes and derricks
• Health care standards for mothers and newborns
• Protective equipment in electric power transmission and distribution
• Refuge alternatives for underground coal mines
• Occupational exposure to tuberculosis

Department of Energy

• Energy-efficiency and conservation standards: wine chillers; battery chargers and power supplies; televisions; residential dehumidifiers; walk-in coolers and freezers; manufactured housing, residential furnaces, boilers, and mobile home furnaces; electric distribution transformers; commercial refrigeration units and heat pumps; clothes washers and dryers, room air conditioners, and dishwashers; pool heaters and direct heating equipment; fluorescent and incandescent lamps; small electric motors; and residential central air conditioners and heat pumps
• Advanced technology vehicles manufacturing incentive program

Department of Transportation

• Passenger Car and Light-truck Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (2017 model years and beyond)
• Automotive regulations for car lighting, door retention, brake hoses, daytime running-light glare, and side-impact protection
• Sound for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles
• Minimum training requirements for operators and training instructors of multiple trailer combination trucks
• Hours of service, rest, and sleep for truck drivers; and Electronic Logging Devices and Hours of Service Supporting Documents
• Require Installation of Seat Belts on Motorcoaches
• Heavy vehicle speed limiters; and Electronic Stability Control Systems for Heavy Vehicles
• Positive Train Control Systems Amendments
• Aging aircraft safety
• Flight crew duty limitations and rest requirements
• Upgrade of head restraints in vehicles
• Rear center lap and shoulder belt requirement
• Registration and training for operators of propane tank-filling equipment
• Monitoring systems for improved tire safety and tire pressure
• Hazardous Materials: Transportation of Lithium Batteries

Environmental Protection Agency

• Control of Air Pollution From Motor Vehicles: Tier 3 Motor Vehicle Emission and Fuel Standards
• Clean air visibility, mercury, and ozone implementation rules
• Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category
• Stormwater Regulations Revision to Address Discharges From Developed Sites
• Formaldehyde Emissions Standards for Composite Wood Products
• Review of National Ambient Air Quality Standards for lead, ozone, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide
• Revising Underground Storage Tank Regulations–Revisions to Existing Requirements and New Requirements for Secondary Containment and Operator Training
• Revision of New Source Performance Standards for New Residential Wood Heaters
• Petroleum Refineries—New Source Performance Standards
• Rulemakings regarding lead-based paint; and Lead; Renovation, Repair, and Painting Program for Public and Commercial Buildings
• National drinking water regulations covering groundwater and surface water
• National emission standards for hazardous air pollutants from plywood and composite wood products, certain reciprocating internal combustion engines, and auto paints
• Renewable fuels standard program
• Standards for cooling water intake structures
• Combined rulemaking for industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers and process heaters
• Standards for management of electric power producer coal-combustion wastes
• Control of emissions from nonroad spark ignition engines, new locomotives, and new marine diesel engines

Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board

• Proposed Rule Stage, Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Accessibility Guidelines for Passenger Vessels
• Multi-State Exchanges; Implementations for Affordable Care Act Provisions

Consumer Product Safety Commission

• Flammability standards for upholstered furniture and bedclothes
• Testing, Certification, and Labeling of Certain Consumer Products
• Banning of certain backyard play sets
• Product registration cards for products intended for children

Federal Communications Commission

• Net Neutrality order
• Broadband over power line systems
• Mobile personal satellite communications
• Satellite broadcasting signal carriage requirements
• Rules regarding Internet protocol-enabled devices

Department of Housing and Urban Development

• Revision of manufactured home construction and safety standards regarding location of smoke alarms
• Regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on “housing goals”
• Regulations within the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act pertaining to mortgages and closing costs
• Refinement of income and rent determinations in public and assisted housing

Department of the Treasury

• Prohibition of funding of unlawful Internet gambling
• Risk-based capital guidelines, capital adequacy guidelines