This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

The number of new final regulations passed the 1,000 mark last week, with new rules ranging from sending mail to human reliability programs.

On to the data:

Last week, 65 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 61 the previous week.
That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 35 minutes.
Federal agencies have issued 1,028 final regulations in 2017. At that pace, there will be 3,134 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,281 regulations.
Last week, 1,222 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,827 pages the previous week.
The 2018 Federal Register totals 19,088 pages. It is on pace for 58,196 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 33 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year.
In 2018, 161 new rules affect small businesses; 8 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

The Energy Department is updating its Human Reliability Program.
A correction to a recent rule regarding methylene chloride labeling.
With Congress fresh from showing off its technological prowess in the Facebook hearings, the Federal Communications Commission is putting together its biennial report on telecom regulations.
How to send mail to other countries.
How to send mail within this country.
Stress testing for credit unions.
Changes in grapefruit size requirements.

For more data, see “10,000 Commandments” and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.