This week in ridiculous regulations: electric motors and small business loans

Congress and President Biden reached a debt ceiling deal. Texas attorney general and antitrust hawk Ken Paxton was impeached. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from copyright claims to jig gear.

On to the data:

• Agencies issued 53 final regulations last week, after 62 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every three hours and 10 minutes.
• With 1,260 final regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,972 final regulations this year. For comparison, there were 3,168 new final regulations in 2022, and 3,257 new final regulations in 2021.
• Agencies issued 31 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 42 the previous week.
• With 912 proposed regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,151 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,044 new proposed regulations in 2022, and 2,094 in 2021.
• Agencies published 355 notices last week, after 465 notices the previous week.
• With 9,468 notices so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 22,330 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 22,505 notices in 2022, and 20,018 in 2021.
• Last week, 2,023 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,787 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2023 contains 344 pages.
• With 36,435 pages so far, the 2023 Federal Register is on pace for 85,932 pages.
• For comparison, the 2022 Federal Register totals 80,756 pages, and 2021’s is 74,352 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (subtracting 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. This will soon change to $200 million. There are eight such rules so far in 2023, none in the last week.
• This is on pace for 19 economically significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 43 economically significant rules in 2022, and 26 in 2021. These comparisons will not be apple-to-apple after the threshold change takes effect. This will likely lower this year’s number.
• The total estimated cost of 2023’s economically significant regulations so far ranges from $55.92 billion to $78.74 billion, according to numbers self-reported by agencies.
• For comparison, the running cost tally for 2022’s economically significant rules ranges from net costs of $45.28 billion to $78.05 billion. In 2021, net costs ranged from $13.54 billion to $1992 billion. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There were five regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” last week, after six the previous week.
• So far this year, there are 104 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant.” This is on pace for 245 significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 255 such new regulations in 2022, and 387 in 2021.
• So far in 2023, 317 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 748. Twenty-nine of them are significant, on pace for 68.
• For comparison, in 2022 there were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 70 of them significant. 2021’s totals were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 101 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new regulations:

• Small business loans under Regulation B of the Equal Opportunity Credit Act.
• Fees and charges from the Delaware River Basin Commission.
• Russian sanctions.
• The Education Department updated its definition of “underserved populations.”
• A correction to recent technical changes to Medicare.
• A correction to a recent change in mining application forms in Colorado.
• The FCC’s Lifeline program.
• Fishing for cod using jig gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska.
• Energy conservation standards for manufactured housing.
• Loan guarantees for clean energy projects.
• New FAA rules for instruction manual requirements to accommodate technology.
• The FCC’s communication assistance for law enforcement.
• Energy conservation standards for consumer pool heaters.
• Secure tests for copyright claims.
• A new FCC rule for eliminating access arbitrage.
• New energy conservation standards for electric motors.
• Program fees from the Delaware River Basin Commission.

For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.