This Week in Ridiculous Regulations   

Washington had one of its best weeks in recent memory. The Nationals won the World Series, and Congress is taking the next two weeks off. Meanwhile, rulemaking agencies published new regulations ranging from the new Domestic Hemp Production Program to snack font size.

On to the data:

• Last week, 55 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, same as the 55 from the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every three hours and three minutes.
• Federal agencies have issued 2,499 final regulations in 2019. At that pace, there will be 2,947 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,367 regulations.
• Last week, agencies published 442 notices, for a total of 18,509 in 2019. At that pace, there will be 21,827 new notices this year. Last year’s total was 21,656.
• Last week, 1,685 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,503 pages the previous week.
• The 2019 Federal Register totals 59,288 pages. It is on pace for 69,916                                                         pages. The 2018 total was 68,302 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. Four such rules have been published this year. Five such rules were published in 2018.
• The running cost tally for 2019’s economically significant regulations currently ranges from savings of $4.39 billion to $4.08 billion, mostly from estimated savings on federal spending. The 2018 total ranges from net costs of $220.1 million to $2.54 billion, depending on discount rates and other assumptions.
• Agencies have published 58 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year. 2018’s total was 108 significant final rules.
• So far in 2019, 416 new rules affect small businesses; 20 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:

• Tax liability for life insurance.
• Inertia locking devices for Boeing 737 seats.
• And for Boeing 777 airplanes.
• And for Airbus A340 airplanes.
• The federal government is establishing a Domestic Hemp Production Program.
• An Energy Labeling Rule from the Federal Trade Commission.
• FUB-AMB, a synthetic cannabinoid, is a Schedule I controlled substance, same as heroin.
• FDA medical device classification for glucose monitors.
• The Health and Human Services Department is rescinding a rule to require unique health plan identifiers.
• The font size of calorie labels on vending machine snacks.
• The EPA dished out new rules for clay ceramics manufacturing emissions.
• The Education Department has a new rule for accrediting accreditation agencies.

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