This week in ridiculous regulations: Junk fees and dehumidifiers

It was a four-day week due to Veterans Day. Another government shutdown deadline is less than a week away. The FTC issued a proposed rule for junk fees. Agencies issued other new regulations ranging from blood storage to car theft prevention.

 On to the data:

• Agencies issued 59 final regulations last week in a four-day week, after 44 the previous five-day week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 51 minutes.
• With 2,590 final regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,998 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 30 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 44 the previous week.
• With 1,850 proposed regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,141 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,044 new proposed regulations in 2022, and 2,094 in 2021.
• Agencies published 363 notices last week, after 466 notices the previous week.
• With 19,784 notices so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 22,898 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 22,505 notices in 2022, and 20,018 in 2021.
• Last week, 1,392 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,706 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2023 contains 359 pages.
• With 77,489 pages so far, the 2023 Federal Register is on pace for 89,686 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 recently changed to $200 million. There are 23 such rules so far in 2023, two in the last week.
• This is on pace for 27 economically significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 43 economically significant rules in 2022, and 26 in 2021. The higher threshold will likely lower this year’s number.
• The total estimated cost of 2023’s economically significant regulations so far ranges from $87.32 billion to $87.45 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 four regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” last week, after three the previous week.
• So far this year, there are 238 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant.” This is on pace for 275 significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 255 such new regulations in 2022, and 387 in 2021.
• So far in 2023, 673 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 779. Sixty-six of them are significant, on pace for 76.
• 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 final regulations:

• A regulatory guide for fire protection at nuclear power plants.
• Classifying blood storage devices.
• Medicare payment changes.
• Medicare payments for renal patients.
• Radiotelephone requirements for boats on the Great Lakes.
• Vehicle theft prevention standards.
• Groundfish fishery monitoring in the Aleutian Islands.
• Venezuela sanctions.
• FinCen identifiers.
• Privacy Act regulations for EPA-100.
• Federal preemption of state and local locomotive engine regulations.
• A non-essential experimental gray wolf population is being established in Colorado.
• Russian sanctions.
• Small business development centers.
• Tort claims for federal prisoners.
• Island bedstraw and Santa Cruz Island dudleya are being removed from the Endangered Species List.
• Changes to the Beef Promotion and Research Order.

And from last week’s proposed regulations:

• A new FTC proposed rule for junk fees.
• Tax decrease for Oregon- and Washington-grown walnuts.
• Subsistence hunting for northern fur seals.
• Fair hiring in banking.
• IRS tax treatment of digital asset transactions.
• Energy conservation standards for dehumidifiers.
• Upcoming hearing on milk marketing.
• Putting foreign return addresses on domestic mail.

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