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The Federal Register is Racking Up Regulations

The Competitive Enterprise Institute periodically reviews the Federal Register and the amount of regulations that the Obama Administration churns out. Here’s a snapshot of it; it’s the daily publication of proposed and final administrative regulations of federal agencies.

“The Federal Register once again topped 2,000 pages last week, and included a year-high 137 final regulations, ranging from eggs to groupers.

On to the data:

  • Last week, 137 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 77 the previous week.
    That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every one hour and 14 minutes.
  • With 1,809 final regulations published so far in 2016, the federal government is on pace to issue 3,561 regulations in 2016. Last year’s total was 3,406 regulations.
  • Last week, 2,051 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,343 pages the previous week.
  • Currently at 43,200 pages, the 2016 Federal Register is on pace for 85,001 pages. This would exceed the 2015 Federal Register’s all-time record adjusted page count of 81,611.
  • Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. 19 such rules have been published so far in 2016, two in the last week.
  • The running compliance cost tally for 2016’s economically significant regulations ranges from $3.82 billion to $6.02 billion.
  • 140 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published this year.
  • So far in 2016, 340 new rules affect small businesses; 53 of them are classified as significant.

    Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

  • Dodd-Frank-related record keeping requirements for the FDIC regarding its member banks.
  • Additives for animal feed.
  • 152 pages of regulations for drones. This rule is economically significant, with 2016 costs ranging from $25.87 million to $302.72 million. The difference, which is more than an order of magnitude, is the FAA’s way of saying “we have no idea what this thing will cost.” The decimal points show a sense of humor, and little else.
  • Total estimated costs from 2016-2020 range from $413.15 million to $2.63112 billion; the same caveats apply.
  • If you make things with eggs and export them, you can now submit your required paperwork electronically.
  • Welcome to the current century, Food Safety and Inspection Service.
  • An energy conservation program for battery chargers, which are themselves intended to conserve energy.
  • The Nassau grouper is now a threatened species.
  • Mementos on the International Space Station.
  • Another rule for preventing collisions at sea.
  • Just in case compact fluorescent light manufacturers feel threatened by competition, the Energy Department issued a new testing rule for LED lights.
  • Fire safety requirements for buildings which house Medicare beneficiaries.”

The amount of regulations have exploded in recent years and is a major reason why the economy hasn’t recovered.