This Week in Ridiculous Regulations  

A humorous diplomatic row over Greenland was not the only news of the week, with China tariffs, divisive rhetoric, and recession fears also putting in appearances. Rulemaking agencies published new regulations ranging from Death Valley airstrips to Lipochitooligosaccharide.

On to the data:

• Last week, 68 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 69 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 28 minutes.
• Federal agencies have issued 1,876 final regulations in 2019. At that pace, there will be 2,860 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,367 regulations.
• Last week, agencies published 447 notices, for a total of 14,121 in 2019. At that pace, there will be 21,526 new notices this year. Last year’s total was 21,656.
• Last week, 1,734 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 3,075 pages the previous week.
• The 2019 Federal Register totals 44,535 pages. It is on pace for 67,889 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. Three 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 $294.9 million to $439.2 million. The 2018 total ranges from $220.1 million to $2.54 billion, depending on discount rates and other assumptions.
• Agencies have published 44 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year. 2018’s total was 108 significant final rules.
• So far in 2019, 318 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:

• The Environmental Protection Agency has a new regulation titled C1. It contains tolerance exemptions for certain inert ingredients in some pesticides.
• It also has a new rule for formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products.
• Entities.
• Service animals and air travel.
• Ilex squid quota harvested.
• Final frameworks for migratory bird hunting season.
• There is a new airstrip in Death Valley.
• Collecting and Reporting of Foreign Indebtedness Within the Department of Defense.
• Regulations for disqualifying people from air travel.
• Stairways between the decks on Airbus A380 airplanes.
• Lipochitooligosaccharide.
• The Federal Communications Commission is modernizing its data collection.
• Hard to tell from the language, but this regulation is about humans, not animals: “This final rule amends regulations relating to the apprehension, processing, care, custody, and release of alien juveniles.”

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