This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Summer officially began last week, and federal regulators celebrated with new regulations ranging from almond kernel computing to rough diamonds.
On to the data:
- Last week, 77 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 57 the previous week.
- That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 11 minutes.
- Federal agencies have issued 1,571 final regulations in 2018. At that pace, there will be 3,246 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,236 regulations.
- Last week, 1,283 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,317 pages the previous week.
- The 2018 Federal Register totals 29,715 pages. It is on pace for 61,395 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. Three such rules have been published this year, one in the last week.
- The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations is $319.1 million.
- Agencies have published 53 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year.
- In 2018, 267 new rules affect small businesses; 15 of them are classified as significant.
Highlights from selected final rules published last week:
- Decreased assessment rate on olives grown in California,
- How to compute kernels of almonds.
- Revisions to the National Poultry Improvement Plan.
- Revised safety standards for high chairs.
- Control standards for diamonds in the rough.
- The 573rd regulation since 1994 for preventing collisions at sea.
- The Penaeid shrimp fishery is back open for business.
- Lead in wood products.
For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.