CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

by Ryan Young 28 Apr 2014

The number of new regulations this year broke the 1,000 mark, and the number of rules affecting small businesses passed 200.

On to the data:

·    Last week, 60 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 84 new final rules the previous week.

·    That's the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 48 minutes.

·    So far in 2014, 1,012 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,163 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.

·    Last week, 1,248 new pages were added to the Federal Register.

·    Currently at 23,229 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 72,591 pages, which would be the lowest total since 2009.

·    Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Twelve such rules have been published so far this year, none of them in the past week.

·    The total estimated compliance costs of 2014's economically significant regulations currently ranges from $1.64 billion to $2.01 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.

·    Eighty-one final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.

·    So far in 2014, 203 new rules affect small businesses; 27 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:....To Read More.....