This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

Inflation fell to a 6.5 percent annual pace. Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro staged their own version of January 6. An Federal Aviation Administration screwup briefly grounded all flights on Wednesday morning. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is attempting to revive the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 by investigating soda companies. Culture warriors got up in arms over gas stoves. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from arts penalties to blue butterflies.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 59 final regulations last week, after 41 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 51 minutes.
• With 100 final regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,778 final regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 3,168 new final regulations in 2022, and 3,257 in 2021.
• Agencies issued 48 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 23 the previous week.
• With 71 proposed regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 1,972 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,044 new proposed regulations in 2022 and 2,094 in 2021.
• Agencies published 418 notices last week, after 221 notices the previous week.
• With 639 notices so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 17,750 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 22,505 notices in 2022, and 20,018 in 2021.
• Last week, 1,365 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,132 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2023 contains 283 pages.
• With 2,500 pages so far, the 2023 Federal Register is on pace for 69,444 pages.
• For comparison, the 2022 Federal Register totals 80,756 pages, and 2021’s is 74,352 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 no such rules so far in 2023.
• That is on pace for no economically significant regulations in 2023 (this projection will almost certainly change).
• For comparison, there were 43 economically significant rules in 2022, and 26 in 2021.
• The total cost of 2023’s economically significant regulations so far is for net costs of zero, according to numbers provided by the agencies themselves.
• For comparison, the running cost tally for 2022’s economically significant rules is for net costs of $45.28 billion to $78.05 billion. In 2021 net costs ranged from $13.54 billion to $19.36 billion. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There are six new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far in 2023. That is on pace for 167 significant rules for the year.
• For comparison, there were 255 such new regulations in 2022, and 387 in 2021.
• So far in 2023, 13 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 361. One of them is significant, on pace for 28.
• For comparison, in 2022 there were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 70 of them significant. 2021’s totals were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 101 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new regulations:

• Updated addresses for contacting the Social Security Administration.
• The Federal Reserve updated its reserve requirement rules and its credit extension rules.
• Voluntary standards for fuel containers.
• Inflation-adjusted penalties from the National Credit Union Administration.
• And from the Government Ethics Office.
• And the FTC.
• And the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
• And the State Department.
• And the Postal Service.
• And the Federal Maritime Commission.
• And the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
• And the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
• And the National Endowment for the Arts.
• And U.S. Customs, the Coast Guard, and the Transportation Security Administration.
• And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• And the Energy Department.
• And the Farm Credit Administration.
• And the Employment and Training Division, Workers Compensation Office, Wage and Hour Division, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
• And for the Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act.
• And the Foreign Assets Control Office.
• And the Defense Department.
• And the General Services Administration.
• And the Surface Transportation Board.
• Conduct of persons and traffic on the National Institutes of Health federal enclave.
• The FTC issued a correction to an earlier energy labeling rule.
• Rules of practice for Federal Reserve hearings.
• Guidance from the Food and Drug Administration for verifying foreign food suppliers.
• Venezuela sanctions.
• $1.82 billion in pandemic aid for farmers.
• Assistance to foreign atomic energy activities.
• Identity standards for distilled spirits.
• Fender’s blue butterfly is being upgraded from an endangered to a threatened species.

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