This week in ridiculous regulations: walnut marketing and railroad dispatchers

The number of new final regulations this year topped 2,000, ending the week at 2,007. Economically significant regulations may be a thing of the past, though they cost as much as ever. Yevgeny Prigozhin, who headed the mercenary Wagner Group and led a coup attempt against Vladimir Putin, apparently died in a plane crash. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from horse protection to tuna identity.

 On to the data:

• Agencies issued 63 final regulations last week, after 55 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and forty minutes.
• With 2,007 final regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 3,059 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 52 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 53 the previous week.
• With 1,408 proposed regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,146 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,044 new proposed regulations in 2022, and 2,094 in 2021.
• Agencies published 450 notices last week, after 424 notices the previous week.
• With 14,615 notices so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 22,279 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 1,871 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2023 contains 357 pages.
• With 58,494 pages so far, the 2023 Federal Register is on pace for 89,168 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 10 such rules so far in 2023, none in the last week.
• This is on pace for 15 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 $54.41 billion to $77.57 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 nine regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” last week, after four the previous week.
• So far this year, there are 179 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant.” This is on pace for 273 significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 255 such new regulations in 2022, and 387 in 2021.
• So far in 2023, 540 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 823. Forty-nine of them are significant, on pace for 75.
• 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 Dairy Donation Program.
• Medicare payments.
• Telemarketing sales rule fees.
• Selling real estate to foreigners.
• The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program.
• Davis-Bacon rules for wages on federal projects.
• Child Nutrition Program integrity.
• Oil and gas and sulfur projects on the Outer Continental Shelf.
• Revised criteria for digestive and skin disorders.
• The Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program.
• The sand dune phacelia is now a threatened species and is receiving critical habitat.
• Marketing Order No. 984 for walnuts grown in California.
• New standards for calculating the atmospheric dispersion of nuclear accidents.
• Volcanic hazard assessment requirements for proposed nuclear power plant sites.
• New performance standards for arc furnaces and argon-oxygen decarburization vessels in steel plants.

And from last week’s proposed regulations:

• Rental subsidies for SSI recipients.
• IRS reporting requirements for exchanges involving life insurance.
• Extended comment period for proposed national emissions standards for copper smelting.
• Broadband subsidies under the Connect America Fund.
• Nine species will not be added to the Endangered Species List.
• A new ATF rule for reporting explosives to your local fire authority.
• The Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program.
• Emissions from storing volatile organic liquid in Missouri.
• Updates to Medicare payments.
• Rules for terrestrial digital FM broadcasts.
• Certifying railroad dispatchers.
• Certifying railroad signal employees.
• Endangered species status for the toothless blindcat and the widemouth blindcat, which are both fish.
• Endangered species status for the salamander mussel.
• Threatened species status for Brawleys fork crayfish.
• Vetting for certain surface transportation employees.
• Endangered species status for the Tennessee clubshell, Tennessee pigtoe, and the Cumberland moccasinshell.
• Power output claims for amplifiers.
• Horse protection.
• Tuna identity standards.
• A proposed FCC rule for cybersecurity labeling of the Internet of Things.
• A public hearing for upcoming CAFE standard changes.

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