This Week in Ridiculous Regulations   

It was a four-day week for the federal government as the nation celebrated Independence Day. Meanwhile, agencies published new regulations ranging from the Paper and Packaging Board to claiming mines.

On to the data:

• Last week, 73 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, same as the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 20 minutes.
• Federal agencies have issued 1,433 final regulations in 2019. At that pace, there will be 2,778 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,367 regulations.
• Last week, agencies published 340 notices, for a total of 11,174 in 2019. At that pace, there will be 21,668 new notices this year. Last year’s total was 21,656.
• Last week, 1,084 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,799 pages the previous week.
• The 2019 Federal Register totals 32,253 pages. It is on pace for 62,506 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 35 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year. 2018’s total was 108 significant final rules.
• So far in 2019, 248 new rules affect small businesses; 13 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:

• Changes to requirements for college loan repayments.
• Military spending—but for credit card spending by active-duty soldiers.
• Carbon monoxide in Boston.
• Fees for claiming mine sites.
• The federal government has a Paper and Packaging Board. It has new membership requirements.
• The Food and Drug Administration will review the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions for radiological health care devices.
• Truncated Taxpayer Identification Numbers for W-2 forms.
• Calculating federal income taxes for U.S. Postal Service products.
• New Environmental Protection Agency standards for stationary compression ignition internal combustion engines.
• The EPA will not revise standards for effluent from onshore oil extraction.
• Auditor independence for certain loans and other transactions.

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