This Week in Ridiculous Regulations

It was a relatively slow week, with 44 proposed regulations and 62 final regulations, though the Supreme Court did rule the federal ban on sports gambling unconstitutional. New rules from the last week range from flying aliens to a cactus status.

On to the data:

• Last week, 62 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 78 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 43 minutes.
• Federal agencies have issued 1,231 final regulations in 2018. At that pace, there will be 3,175 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,281 regulations.
• Last week, 1,169 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,270 pages the previous week.
• The 2018 Federal Register totals 23,339 pages. It is on pace for 60,153 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. Two such rules have been published this year, none in the last week.
• The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations is $215 million.
• Agencies have published 44 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year.
• In 2018, 200 new rules affect small businesses; 11 of them are classified as significant. 

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• If a fruit or vegetable is grown in the U.S., there is a good chance the federal government subsidizes it in one way or another. A new rule allows representatives of the various thickets of these subsidy programs to meet with each other electronically.
• Surgical apparel.
• Mining in Missouri.
• Energy conservation standards for ceiling fan light kits.
• The Tobusch fishhook cactus’ status is changing from endangered to threatened. It is also receiving a new scientific name.
• The Federal Communications Commission claims to be removing barriers to broadband infrastructure investment.
• Flight training for aliens, courtesy of the Transportation Security Administration.

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