This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
It may not feel like Spring yet, but regulatory agencies have turned their fancies to rulemaking, with 45 proposed and 70 final regulations ranging from the size of oranges to yellow lances.
On to the data:
- Last week, 70 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 63 the previous week.
- That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 24 minutes.
- Federal agencies have issued 825 final regulations in 2017. At that pace, there will be 3,079 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,281 regulations.
- Last week, 1,202 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 964 pages the previous week.
- The 2018 Federal Register totals 15,374 pages. It is on pace for 57,366 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (which subtracts 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. One such rule has been published this year, none in the last week.
- The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations is $115 million.
- Agencies have published 24 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year.
- In 2018, 130 new rules affected small businesses; 7 of them are classified as significant.
Highlights from selected final rules published last week:
- Labeling requirements for products that use energy and water.
- Military support for civilian law enforcement. What could possibly go wrong?
- Organic dairy products.
- Size requirements for oranges.
- Cranberry quotas to “adjust supply to more closely meet market demand,” something more quickly, easier, and cheaper by the price system.
- The U.S. Postal Service has a Green and Secure Program.
- The yellow lance, a type of mussel, is now a threatened species.
- So is the Louisiana pinesnake.
- Importing lemons from Chile.
For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.