The week in regulations, shutdown edition: Medicare payments and arms trafficking.

The Supreme Court held oral hearings for the V.O.S. Spirits tariff case. Former Vice President Dick Cheney passed away. Democrats had a very good election night. The 2025 Federal Register topped 50,000 pages. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from patent practicing to marine mammal military casualties.

 On to the data:

• Agencies issued 16 final regulations last week, after 15 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every ten hours and 30 minutes.
• With 2,067 final regulations so far in 2025, agencies are on pace to issue 2,415 final regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 3,248 final regulations in 2024, 3,018 in 2023, and 3,168 in 2022.
• Agencies issued six proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after eight the previous week.
• With 1,260 proposed regulations so far in 2025, agencies are on pace to issue 1,472 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 1,769 proposed regulations in 2024, 2,102 proposed regulations in 2023, and 2,044 in 2022.
• Agencies published 37 notices last week, after 49 notices the previous week.
• With 15,7040notices so far in 2024, agencies are on pace to issue 18,388 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 25,506 notices in 2024, 22,902 in 2023, and 28,973 in 2022.
• Last week, 1,728 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 225 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2025 contains 237 pages.
• With 50,740 pages so far, the 2025 Federal Register is on pace for 59,276 pages.
• For comparison, the 2024 Federal Register has an all-time record 107,261 pages. The 2023 edition has 90,402 pages, and the 2022 Federal Register has 80,756 pages.
• Rules with $200 million or more of economic effects in at least one year qualify as major under Section 3(f)(1). This replaced the former economically significant tag for $100 million-plus regulations.
• However, the $100 million economically significant tag is now revived under a Trump Executive Order, and the $200 million 3(f)(1) tag is going away. Rules from both categories have appeared this year.
• There are 10 3(f)(1) or economically significant regulations so far in 2025, with one in the last week.
• This is on pace for 12 3(f)(1) or economically significant regulations in 2025.
• For comparison, there were 20 3(f)(1) significant regulations in 2024, 28 3(f)(1) and/or economically significant regulations in 2023, and 43 economically significant rules in 2022. Note that these are not apples-to-apples comparisons, since 3(f)(1) and economically significant rules have different thresholds.
• This year’s section 3(f)(1) and economically significant regulations have estimated costs ranging from net savings of $3.53 billion to net costs of $784.85 million.
• For context, the cost tally for 2024’s 3(f)(1) significant regulations is net savings of $16.42 billion to 26.45 billion. 2023’s 3(f)(1) and/or economically significant regulations estimated costs range from $62.60 billion to 90.48 billion. Cost estimates for 2022’s economically significant rules range from $45.28 billion to $78.05 billion. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There were two new final regulations last week meeting the broader definition of “significant,” after three the previous week.
• So far this year, there are 113 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant.” This is on pace for 135 significant regulations in 2025.
• For comparison, there were 339 such regulations in 2024, 290 in 2023, and 255 in 2022.
• So far in 2025, 518 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 605. Twenty-three of them are significant, on pace for 27. Earlier transparency problems at FederalRegister.gov affecting this and other statistics have been fixed as of October 3, 2025. Our thanks to the people responsible.
• For comparison, in 2024 there were 770 regulations affecting small businesses, 76 of them significant. In 2023 there were 789 regulations affecting small businesses, 79 of them significant.

All of last week’s new final regulations:

• Homeland Security Department implementation of the Administrative False Claims Act.
• Red snapper angling component closure.
• Fisheries rules for Pacific Ocean perch in the Western Aleutian district, Pacific Ocean perch in the Central Aleutian district, Pacific Ocean perch in the Eastern Aleutian District, and Atka mackerel.
• Airworthiness directives for
  Airworthiness Directives; Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze airplanes, MHI RJ Aviation ULC airplanes, and Bell Textron Canada helicopters.
• A scheduled economically significant update to Medicare payment policies.
• DHS rules for federal property.
• EPA rules for cyclobutrifluram pesticide tolerance.
• Pacific marine mammal casualties from military exercises.
• Massachusetts flounder fishing.
• Arms trafficking.
  
  

And all of last week’s proposed regulations:

• Collecting foreigners’ biometric data.
• Periodic Postal Regulatory Commission reporting.
• EPA rules for the chemical substances (25-1.5e), (24.-5.5e), and (25-2.5e).
• Rules of practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter. See also CEI’s Agenda for Congress.