This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

The Inflation Reduction Act, which would not reduce inflation, is now expected to pass after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema agreed to sign on. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from helicopter routes to prison phone calls.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 48 final regulations last week, after 42 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every four hours.
• With 1,838 final regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 3,063 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 32 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 48 the previous week.
• With 1,268 proposed regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 2,113 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,094 new proposed regulations in 2021 and 2,094 in 2020.
• Agencies published 445 notices last week, after 342 notices the previous week.
• With 13,433 notices so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 22,338 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 20,018 notices in 2021. 2020’s total was 22,458.
• Last week, 2,895 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,895 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2022 contains 323 pages.
• With 48,077 pages so far, the 2022 Federal Register is on pace for 80,128 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 23 such rules so far in 2021, two from the last week.
• This is on pace for 38 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 for net savings of $12.48 billion to $19.59 billion, according to numbers provided by the agencies themselves. However, this figure is incomplete. Three economically significant rules issued this year do not give the required cost estimates.
• For comparison, the running cost tally for 2021’s economically significant rules is for net costs of $12.46 billion to $19.60 billion. The 2020 figure is for net savings of $2.04 billion to $5.69 billion, mostly from estimated savings on federal spending. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There are 154 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far in 2022. That is on pace for 257 significant rules for the year.
• For comparison, there were 387 such new regulations in 2021 and 79 in 2020.
• So far in 2022, 513 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 855. Thirty-nine of them are significant, on pace for 65.
• 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:

• National standards for traffic control devices.
• COVID-related web general licenses related to Syria, Iran, and Venezuela sanctions.
• In-season halibut sharing.
• A correction to New York helicopter routes.
• Railroad weight loss reporting.
• Second-trimester longfin squid.
• A correction for transitional standards for milk, whole grains, and sodium in school lunches.
• FEMA is simplifying its procedures for large project grants.
• Prison phone call rates.
• The Justice Department is streamlining its acquisition regulations.
• Preserving paleontological resources on federal land.

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