This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

Russia invaded Ukraine last week. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from headlights to glucose monitors.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 44 final regulations last week, after 64 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 38 minutes.
• With 479 final regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 3,151 final regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 3,257 new final regulations in 2021, President Biden’s first year, and 3,218 in 2020, President Trump’s final year.
• Agencies issued 37 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 40 the previous week.
• With 330 proposed regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 2,171 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,094 new proposed regulations in 2021 and 2,102 in 2020.
• Agencies published 361 notices last week, after 448 notices the previous week.
• With 3,382 notices so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 22,250 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 20,018 notices in 2021. 2020’s total was 22,480.
• Last week, 1,499 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,283 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2022 contains 276 pages.
• With 10,923 pages so far, the 2022 Federal Register is on pace for 71,862 pages.
• For comparison, the 2021 Federal Register totals 74,352 pages, and 2020’s is 87,352 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (subtracting 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. There are three such rules so far in 2021, none from the last week.
• This is on pace for 12 economically significant regulations in 2022.
• For comparison, there were 26 economically significant rules in 2021, and five in 2020.
• The total cost of 2022’s economically significant regulations so far is $187 million. However, only one of the three such rules issued this year gives the required cost estimates, so this figure is incomplete.
• For comparison, the running cost tally for 2021’s economically significant rules ranges from $13.54 billion to $19.36 billion. The 2020 figure ranges from net savings of between $2.04 billion and $5.69 billion, mostly from estimated savings on federal spending. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There are 34 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far in 2022. This is on pace for 223 significant rules for the year.
• For comparison, there were 387 such new regulations in 2021, and 79 in 2020.
• So far in 2022, 142 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 934. Twelve of them are significant, on pace for 79.
• For comparison, there were 912 rules in 2021 affecting small businesses, with 101 of them classified as significant. 2020’s totals were 668 rules affecting small businesses, 26 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new regulations:

• Adaptive headlights for cars are now legal. They were previously banned despite being safer than conventional headlights, because federal regulations require headlights to have separate high and low beam settings. Adaptive headlights lack these because they automatically adapt to road conditions. Former CEI analyst Marc Scribner submitted comments to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urging their legalization back in 2018.
• Determining stock ownership.
• Electronic fund transfers and government benefits.
• International trading of endangered species.
• Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau gliders.
• Emergency import restrictions on Afghan archaeological artifacts.
• Procedures for releasing technical information to foreign governments.
• Classifying glucose monitors.
• Sparrow airworthiness requirements.

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