This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

The labor market continues to look strong, and the Federal Trade Commission lost its attempt to keep an early cancer-detection test off the market. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from portable spas to dairy tariffs.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 74 final regulations last week, after 86 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 16 minutes.
• With 2,075 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 27 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 25 the previous week.
• With 1,4114 proposed regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 2,075 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,094 new proposed regulations in 2021, and 2,094 in 2020.
• Agencies published 475 notices last week, after 412 notices the previous week.
• With 15,337 notices so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 22,337 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 20,018 notices in 2021. 2020’s total was 22,458.
• Last week, 1,632 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,421 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2022 contains 319 pages.
• With 54,295 pages so far, the 2022 Federal Register is on pace for 79,846 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 28 such rules so far in 2021, two 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 is for net savings of $33.37 billion to $1.16 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 175 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, 593 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 872. Forty-eight of them are significant, on pace for 71.
• 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:

• Energy conservation standards for portable electric spas.
• Rules for whistleblowers at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Renewable fuel standards for small refineries.
• Soliciting union memberships among government contractors.
• Venezuelan equine encephalitis.
• Safety standards for child frame carriers.
• Credit subsidy fees for housing loan guarantees.
• The Food for Progress Program.
• Telemarketing sales rule fees.
• Diplomatic visa issuance eligibility.
• Energy conservation tests for general service fluorescent lamps, incandescent reflector lamps, and general service incandescent lamps.
• The dairy tariff-rate quota import licensing program.
• Crop insurance reporting.
• New DACA rules for immigrants who arrive as children.
• Food additives for animal feed and drinking water.
• Guidance for unfair and deceptive practice from the Department of Transportation.

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