This Week in Ridiculous Regulations: Tea Experts and Coin Batteries

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited America. The federal government is a week away from a potential partial shutdown. Sen. Bob Menendez was indicted again. Meanwhile, culture warriors directed their outrage at the Senate floor’s dress code. Agencies issued new regulations ranging from threatened crayfish to railroad switches.

 On to the data:

• Agencies issued 65 final regulations last week, after 34 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 35 minutes.
• With 2,212 final regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 3,022 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 33 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 36 the previous week.
• With 1,552 proposed regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,120 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,044 new proposed regulations in 2022, and 2,094 in 2021.
• Agencies published 435 notices last week, after 510 notices the previous week.
• With 16,404 notices so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 22,410 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 22,505 notices in 2022, and 20,018 in 2021.
• Last week, 1,746 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,547 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2023 contains 358 pages.
• With 65,580 pages so far, the 2023 Federal Register is on pace for 89,590 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 13 such rules so far in 2023, one in the last week.
• This is on pace for 18 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 $84.17 billion to $86.40 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 two the previous week.
• So far this year, there are 199 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant.” This is on pace for 272 significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 255 such new regulations in 2022, and 387 in 2021.
• NOTE: This section could not be updated this week due to FederalRegister.gov’s search function being disabled. The numbers for this item are from the week of September 11, 2023. The rest of this roundup’s numbers are current as of September 22, 2023. So far in 2023, 566 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 795. Fifty-three of them are significant, on pace for 74.
• 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:

• The Board of Tea Experts is shutting down, in response to the Federal Tea Tasters Repeal Act of 1996. Only took 27 years!
• Thresholds for truth-in-lending regulations.
• Mining regulations for Kentucky.
• And Missouri.
• And Ohio.
• And Texas.
• Exchanging flatfish.
• Mandatory data collection of prisoners’ communications records.
• Safety standards for button cell or coin batteries.
• State and local coronavirus fiscal recovery funds.
• Energy conservation standards for commercial packaged boilers.
• Nuclear debt collection.
• The federal government may garnish its employees’ wages for debts owed to itself.
• Cambodian artifacts.
• The federal government is terminating its Board of Tea Experts.
• Ethiopia sanctions.
• Global Magnitsky sanctions.
• Updated postal product list.
• Child Nutrition Program integrity.
• Flounder quota transfers.
• Ethylphenidate is now a Schedule I controlled substance.
• Don’t fly over the Sanaa Flight Information Region.

And from last week’s proposed regulations:

• The Transportation Department denied a petition from an activist group to require anti-pediatric heatstroke safety features in cars.
• Temporary traffic control devices.
• The new Nine Lakes of East Tennessee viticultural area.
• Threatened species status for the Miami Cave crayfish.
• One species will remain listed on, and six species will not be added to, the Endangered Species List.
• New H-2 rules for workers.
• Highway access.
• Environmental impact statement for introducing gray wolves to Colorado.
• Long-term bank debt.
• Deposit insurance reporting requirements for banks with between $50 billion and $100 billion in assets.
• Quality control for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
• Reciprocal switching for railroads.
• A second reciprocal switching rule.
• Plans to reduce whale casualties from commercial fishing.
• Five-year extension of the ban on gold coral harvesting.

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