This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The 2016 Federal Register will likely top 90,000 pages next week for the first time ever. New rules from the past week range from contact lenses to boilers.
On to the data:
- Last week, 86 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 65 the previous week.
- That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every one hour and 58 minutes.
- With 3,540 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,749 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
- Last week, 1,947 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,006 pages the previous week.
- Currently at 89,244 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 94,516 pages. This would exceed the 2010 Federal Register’s previous all-time record adjusted page count of 81,405.
- Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 31 such rules have been published so far in 2016, one in the last week.
- The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $23.8 billion to $36.6 billion.
- 284 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
- So far in 2016, 590 new rules affect small businesses; 100 of them are classified as significant.
Highlights from selected final rules published last week:
- The Energy Department is withdrawing its recent rule regarding commercial boilers. It will issue a revised version in the near future.
- New drug and alcohol policies for commercial drivers will cost an estimated $154 million per year, down from the initial $186 million estimate.
- Railroad police officers.
- Dairy tariffs and import quotas. No competition allowed!
- A proposed rule for contact lens record-keeping.
- Think twice before importing archaeological items from Bolivia or Egypt.
- A delay on required background checks for the Head Start Program’s employees.
- Imported fruits and vegetables.
- Don’t smoke in government housing.
- The Tennessee Valley Authority is still around. Here some of its new procedures.
- Energy conservation for boilers.
For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.