This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Agencies issued 78 new regulations last week, ranging from cherries to dairy.
On to the data:
- Last week, 78 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 65 the previous week.
- That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 10 minutes.
- With 2,659 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,693 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
- Last week, 1,444 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,504 pages the previous week.
- Currently at 63,964 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 88,839 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
- Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 25 such rules have been published so far in 2016, one in the last week.
- The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $4.42 billion to $6.62 billion.
- 204 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
- So far in 2016, 472 new rules affect small businesses; 78 of them are classified as significant.
Highlights from selected final rules published last week:
- One of humanity’s greatest victories over death was eradicating smallpox. While this changes nothing in the long run, it certainly improves, and lengthens, the short run. Now the Department of Health and Human Services is removing some of its obsolete regulations regarding the smallpox vaccine.
- The federal government’s National Dairy Promotion and Research Program will remain unchanged for the time being.
- A new regulation for federal prison inmates who want to make interstate phone calls.
- The white fringeless orchid is now a threatened species.
- New EPA air regulations for Vermont, Colorado, Georgia, and North Carolina.
- Optimal use of the government contractor issued travel charge card.
- Energy-use labels for refrigerators, ceiling fans, air conditioners, and water heaters.
- How Medicare will function in the event of a terrorist attack.
- Grading eggs.
- The optimum supply of cherries.
For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.