This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

Air travelers no longer have to wear masks, although the decision is being appealed. Having solved all of the state’s other problems, Florida Republicans passed an anti-Disney law. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from bottled water to replica cars.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 41 final regulations last week, after 68 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every four hours and six minutes.
• With 966 final regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 3,096 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 31 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 45 the previous week.
• With 690 proposed regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 2,211 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,094 new proposed regulations in 2021, and 2,094 in 2020.
• Agencies published 526 notices last week, after 432 notices the previous week.
• With 7,007 notices so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 22,503 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 20,018 notices in 2021. 2020’s total was 22,458.
• Last week, 1,809 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,809 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2022 contains 312 pages.
• With 24,266 pages so far, the 2022 Federal Register is on pace for 77,776 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 10 such rules so far in 2021, none from the last week.
• This is on pace for 32 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 ranges from net savings of $1.14 billion to $3.74 billion. However, this figure is incomplete. Not all such rules issued this year give the required cost estimates.
• For comparison, the running cost tally for 2021’s economically significant rules ranges from net costs of $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 76 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far in 2022. This is on pace for 244 significant rules for the year.
• For comparison, there were 387 such new regulations in 2021 and 79 in 2020.
• So far in 2022, 265 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 849. Twenty-eight of them are significant, on pace for 90.
• 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:

• Monkfish specifications.
• A response to an appeal regarding new energy conservation standards for commercial boilers.
• Bottled water.
• Education Department penalties are being adjusted for inflation.
• So are NASA penalties.
• Revised National Environmental Policy Act regulations.
• Vehicle Identification Number standards for replica cars.
• The Federal Reserve is revising regulations for extending credit, and for reserve requirements.
• Temporary travel restrictions against Mexico.
• And Canada.
• Car rental rules for federal employees.

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