This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

The 2022 Federal Register surpassed 50,000 pages last week. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from hearing aids to vessel repair duties.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 64 final regulations last week, after 47 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 38 minutes.
• With 1,950 final regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 3,062 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 33 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 54 the previous week.
• With 1,359 proposed regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 2,206 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,094 new proposed regulations in 2021 and 2,094 in 2020.
• Agencies published 427 notices last week, after 432 notices the previous week.
• With 14,302 notices so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 23,218 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 20,018 notices in 2021. 2020’s total was 22,458.
• Last week, 1,258 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,892 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2022 contains 322 pages.
• With 51,235 pages so far, the 2022 Federal Register is on pace for 83,174 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 25 such rules so far in 2021, one from the last week.
• This is on pace for 41 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 ranges from net savings of $18.20 billion to net costs of $14.01 billion. The 2020 figure is for 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 161 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far in 2022. This is on pace for 261 significant rules for the year.
• For comparison, there were 387 such new regulations in 2021, and 79 in 2020.
• So far in 2022, 537 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 842. Forty-two of them are significant, on pace for 66.
• 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:

• Hearings aids may finally now be bought over the counter without a prescription.
• A delay in new tobacco packaging regulations.
• Migratory bird hunting.
• Small businesses in the Northern Mariana Islands are now eligible for certain Small Business Administration subsidies.
• New safety standards for sling carriers.
• Vessel repair duties.
• Energy conservation standards for external power supplies.
• A tax cut on California-grown olives.
• Dual labeling requirements for meat and poultry.
• Russian sanctions.
• Two rules for Venezuelan sanctions.
• How to test drinking water.
• Landfill emissions in Florida.
• Harmonizing hazardous materials regulations with international standards.
• Energy conservation tests for ceiling fans.
• Substance abuse at Energy Department work sites.
• The Gabilan Mountains viticultural area.
  
  

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