This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

Spring Training began for all 30 Major League Baseball teams, bringing joy across the nation. Meanwhile, agencies issued new final regulations ranging from grains ounce equivalence to inactive fishing boats.

On to the data:

• Last week, 66 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 60 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 33 minutes.
• Federal agencies have issued 361 final regulations in 2020. At that pace, there will be 2,912 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 2,964 regulations.
• There were also 61 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, for a total of 265 on the year. At that pace, there will be 2,138 new proposed regulations in 2020. Last year’s total was 2,106 proposed regulations.
• Last week, agencies published 410 notices, for a total of 2,593 in 2020. At that pace, there will be 20,912 new notices this year. Last year’s total was 21,804.
• Last week, 1,271 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,536 pages the previous week.
• The 2020 Federal Register totals 8,715 pages. It is on pace for 70,283 pages. The 2019 total was 70,250 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. Four such rules were published in 2019.
• The running cost tally for 2020’s economically significant regulations is currently zero. 2019’s total ranges from net savings of $350 million to $650 million, mostly from estimated savings on federal spending. The exact number depends on discount rates and other assumptions.
• Agencies have published 11 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year. 2019’s total was 66 significant final rules.
• So far in 2020, 71 new rules affect small businesses; four of them are classified as significant. 2019’s totals were 501 rules affecting small businesses, with 22 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new final regulations:

• Conveyance of small tracts of forest.
• Unified carrier fees for truckers.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a new regulation for its registers of both active and inactive fishing boats.
• Grains ounce equivalents for the federal government’s food table.
• The 2020 Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Lobster Harvest Guidelines are out now.
• The Small Business Administration is changing its Express Loan regulations.
• The U.S. is changing how it deals with Least Developed Countries through the World Trade Organization.
• Changes to Medicare payments.
• New energy standards for appliance.
• Ecuadorean archaeology.

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