This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

The House has adjourned for its August recess until September 9. The Senate will follow suit after this week; the Republic will soon be safe for over a month. Rulemaking agencies are still on the job, however, and published new regulations ranging from the Army’s real estate handbook to lactic acid tolerance.​

On to the data:

• Last week, 66 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 53 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 33 minutes.
• Federal agencies have issued 1,606 final regulations in 2019. At that pace, there will be 2,789 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,367 regulations.
• Last week, agencies published 367 notices, for a total of 12,367 in 2019. At that pace, there will be 21,471 new notices this year. Last year’s total was 21,656.
• Last week, 1,450 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,310 pages the previous week.
• The 2019 Federal Register totals 36,454 pages. It is on pace for 63,289 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. Two such rules have 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 $205.1 million to $294.8 million. The 2018 total ranges from $220.1 million to $2.54 billion, depending on discount rates and other assumptions.
• Agencies have published 39 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year. 2018’s total was 108 significant final rules.
• So far in 2019, 279 new rules affect small businesses; 14 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:

• Requirements for interlocking directorates from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
• Guidance for lender stress tests from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
• Nietzsche smiles: a safety zone for the Superior Man Triathlon.
• Real estate appraisals.
• Fresh Moroccan raspberries.
• Not that it will stop anyone already inclined to do so, but human traffickers may not drive trucks “for which a commercial drivers’ license or a commercial learner’s permit is required.”
• A new Environmental Protection Agency rule for protection of human research subjects.
• The Federal Communications Commission will be collecting information on cell phone users for its national emergency broadcast system. The system has been used once, and only as a test.
• Revised safety standards for full-size cribs.
• The U.S. Army has a real estate handbook, though it is being removed “because its content is internal to the Department.” Ditto a second rule, simply titled “Real Estate.”
• Lactic acid is now exempt from an Environmental Protection Agency tolerance requirement.
• Also from the EPA, Standards of Performance for Stationary Compression Ignition Internal Combustion Engines.

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