The week in regulations: Voting by mail and $100,000 visas

The number of new final regulations in 2026 topped the 2,000 mark. President Trump escalated his trade war against Canada and issued an executive order to rename Lake Ontario. Dolly Parton and Tim Curry passed away. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from rail cargo to Mushroom Council membership.

 On to the data:

• Agencies issued 70 new final regulations last week.
• This is equivalent to one new final regulation every two hours and 24 minutes.
• Agencies have issued 2,002 final regulations so far in 2026.
• At this pace, agencies will issue 2,962 final regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,441 final regulations in 2025, 3,248 in 2024, and 3,018 in 2023.
• Agencies issued 26 new proposed regulations last week.
• With 1,213 proposed regulations so far in 2026, agencies are on pace to issue 1,794 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 1,498 proposed regulations in 2025, 1,769 in 2024, and 2,102 in 2023.
• Agencies issued 375 notices last week.
• With 13,858 notices so far in 2026, agencies are on pace to issue 20,500 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 19,820 notices in 2025, 25,506 in 2024, and 22,902 in 2023.
• There were 1,072 new Federal Register pages last week.
• With 55,731 pages so far, the 2026 Federal Register is on pace to reach 82,442 pages.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2026 contains 336 pages.
• For comparison, the 2025 Federal Register had 61,461 pages, and 2024 had an all-time record 107,261 pages. The 2023 edition had 90,402 pages.
• Rules with annual economic effects of $100 million or more in at least one year qualify as economically significant.
• During the Biden administration, this category was temporarily scrapped and replaced with a $200 million annual threshold for being called significant under Section 3(f)(1) of Executive Order 12866 as amended.
• A 2025 Trump executive order scrapped the $200 million 3(f)(1) threshold and revived the $100 million economically significant category. Because of the length of time the rulemaking process takes, rules under both thresholds are still appearing.
• So far in 2026, there are 20 new regulations that are either 3(f)(1) or economically significant. No such regulations appeared in the previous week.
• This pace will yield 30 new regulations in 2026 that are either 3(f)(1) or economically significant.
• For comparison, there were 17 new regulations in 2025 that were either 3(f)(1) or economically significant, 20 in 2024, and 28 in 2023. Note that these are not apples-to-apples comparisons, since 3(f)(1) and economically significant rules have different thresholds.
• Regulations that are new in 2026 and are either 3(f)(1) or economically significant are estimated to produce somewhere between net annual savings of $906 billion and net costs of $133 billion.
• For context, 3(f)(1) or economically significant regulations in 2025 had estimated net annual costs of $219 million to $1.64 billion. The figures for 2024 are net annual savings of $16.42 billion to $26.45 billion. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There were eight final regulations last week meeting the broader definition of “significant.”
• So far this year, 150 new final regulations meet the broader definition of “significant.” This pace will yield 222 significant final regulations in 2026.
• For comparison, there were 155 such regulations in 2025, 339 in 2024, and 290 in 2023.
• So far in 2026, 431 new regulations affect small businesses, making a yearly pace of 649. Nineteen of them are significant, making a yearly pace of 29.
• For comparison, in 2025 there were 597 regulations affecting small businesses, 30 of them significant. In 2024 there were 770 regulations affecting small businesses, 76 of them significant. In 2023 there were 789 regulations affecting small businesses, 106 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new final regulations:

• Postal Service restrictions on voting by mail.
• Farm subsidies.
• Free and restricted percentages for tart cherries.
• Handling regulations for sweet cherries.
• Tax decrease on California-grown olives.
• Iran-related web general licenses.
• Iran sanctions.
• A sector determination from the Foreign Assets Control Office pursuant to an Executive Order from January 2020.
• Critical position pay for government employees.
• International trademark classification changes.
• Telemarketing sales rule fees.
• Marine mammal casualties related to the Duckabush Estuary restoration project.
• Customs regulations for rail cargo.
• Energy Department loans to minority-owned businesses.
• US Customs is establishing four new Customs-Enforcement Areas.
• Personal watercraft in the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
• Export controls for drones.
• Arms trafficking regulations for airplanes modified with survivability equipment.

Highlights from last week’s proposed regulations:

• A new $103,265 fee for H-1B visas, after courts struck down a previous similar fee.
• Drawbridge schedules in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
• Order books for swap transactions.
• Shrimp moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Mushroom Council membership.
• IRS rules for employer contributions to Trump accounts.
• Renewing your passport overseas.

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