This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

While the administration is so far keeping to its one-in, two-out policy for proposed rules, new trade and antitrust policies are likely to increase net burdens by billions of dollars. The nation also celebrated National Donut Day, a Competitive Enterprise Institute favorite. Meanwhile, agencies published new regulations ranging from video calls to flying to Cuba.

On to the data:

• Last week, 56 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 41 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation precisely every 3 hours.
• Federal agencies have issued 1,154 final regulations in 2019. At that pace, there will be 2,623 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,367 regulations.
• Last week, agencies published 484 notices, for a total of 9,446 in 2019. At that pace, there will be 21,469 new notices this year. Last year’s total was 22,205.
• Last week, 1,241 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,128 pages the previous week.
• The 2019 Federal Register totals 26,737 pages. It is on pace for 60,766 pages. The 2018 total was 68,082 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (which subtracts skips, jumps, and blank pages) is 96,994, set in 2016.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. One such rule has been published this year. Six such rules were published in 2018.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2019’s economically significant regulations currently ranges from $139.1 million to $175.8 million. The 2018 total ranges from $220.1 million to $2.54 billion, depending on discount rates and other assumptions.
• Agencies have published 31 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year. 2018’s total was 108 significant final rules.
• So far in 2019, 208 new rules affect small businesses; 11 of them are classified as significant. 2018’s totals were 660 rules affecting small businesses, with 29 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new final regulations:

• Video call quality. This one is from the Federal Communications Commission, not the National Security Agency.
• International mail prices.
• Sometimes legislation goes off topic. Here’s an example from the FCC: Service Rules for Advanced Wireless Services H Block-Implementing Section 6401 of the Middle-Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 Related to the 1915-1920 MHz and 1995-2000 MHz Bands.
• Restrictions on flights to Cuba.
• And Cuban assets.
• Additional paperwork for diversity immigrants.
• Yellowfin sole.
• Training regulations for marine radar observers.

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