This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

Queen Elizabeth II passed away at age 96. Meanwhile, in a four-day week, agencies issued new regulations ranging from St. Louis bridges to Atlantic krill meal.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 75 final regulations last week, after 74 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 14 minutes.
• With 2,180 final regulations so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 3,132 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 27 the previous week.
• With 1,444 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 15,528 notices so far in 2022, agencies are on pace to issue 22,310 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 20,018 notices in 2021. 2020’s total was 22,458.
• Last week, 1,383 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,632 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2022 contains 319 pages.
• With 55,682 pages so far, the 2022 Federal Register is on pace for 80,003 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 30 such rules so far in 2021, two from the last week.
• This is on pace for 43 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, that 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 $33.36 billion to $1.15 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 180 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far in 2022. That is on pace for 259 significant rules for the year.
• For comparison, there were 387 such new regulations in 2021 and 79 in 2020.
• So far in 2022, 613 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 881. Forty-nine of them are significant, on pace for 70.
• 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 miscellaneous gas products.
• Insider mitigation.
• Repaying candidate loans.
• Foreign intellectual property.
• Four Russian sanctions regulations.
• Information collection about unlicensed devices that use similar frequencies to over-the-air television broadcasts.
• Minimum insurance requirements for marine fishery observers.
• September quota transfers for Atlantic bluefin tuna.
• Harpoon fishery season closes on November 15 for Atlantic bluefin tuna.
• Energy conservation tests for battery chargers.
• Pay versus performance.
• Color additives for Atlantic krill meal.
• Reproductive health for veterans.
• An update to the public charge immigration rule.
• A correction to closed captioning rules.
• Revised safety standards for infant bouncer seats.
• Drawbridge schedules in St. Louis.
• The independence of benefit plan accountants for federal employees.

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