Sugarplums or Lumps of Coal?
White House's 192 Big Rules in Pipeline Herald More Regulation than Deregulation
Clyde Wayne Crews•
We got a partial reprieve from Washington’s big government ways in 2017 from Trump administration moves like the executive order requiring that agencies ditch at least two rules for every one they add.
The most costly subset of rules in the Agenda are classified as “economically significant,” which loosely means they have $100 million in effect, either imposing costs, reducing costs, or otherwise exhibiting heft.
The Fall 2019 Unified Agenda reports on 3,752 rules and regulations at the “active,” “completed,” and “long-term” stages of the regulatory pipeline, many of them holdovers from earlier volumes.
Among these, there were 192 “economically significant” rules in the queue
119 active, 29 long-term, and 44 recently completed. The overall flow of economically significant rules in Trump’s fist (2017) Fall Unified Agenda started out 27 percent lower than Obama’s final year, but they’ve been creeping up since.________________________________________________________________________ On a positive note, Trump’s figures contain numerous rules that are classified as “deregulatory”—there’s even a radio button to click to sort them out. But there is also a “regulatory” button, and the one-in, two-out mandate notwithstanding, 67 percent of economically significant rules in the pipeline are regulatory. There are 33 deregulatory and 67 regulatory; just by coincidence, these classifications add up to 100 this time.
The trends are wrong for two-for-one to ever work again, which is why other approaches to restraint, disclosure, and accountability will rise in importance.
The full list of the 192 economically significant rules and regulations in the Fall 2019 Unified Agenda appears below, broken down by department or agency, and by stage of completion.
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Source: Compiled by Wayne Crews from “The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions,” at reginfo.gov.
Note: The “Regulation Identifier Number” or RIN appears at the end of each entry below. For additional information see the publication “How to Use the Unified Agenda.”
33 deregulatory actions highlighted in bold.
67 regulatory actions highlighted in italics.
ACTIVE RULEMAKINGS (119 actions, 20 of them deregulatory, 39 regulatory)
- DHS/OS, Prerule Stage, Collection of Alien Biometric Data Upon Exit From the United States at Air and Sea Ports of Departure, 1601-AA34
- HUD/HUDSEC, Final Rule Stage, Housing and Community Development of 1980: Verification of Eligible Status, 2501-AD89
- HUD/CPD, Final Rule Stage, Housing Trust Fund (FR-5246), 2506-AC30
70. DOL/ETA, Final Rule Stage, Labor Certification Process for Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States (H-2A workers), 1205-AB89
- DOL/EBSA, Proposed Rule Stage, Default Electronic Disclosures by Employee Pension Benefit Plans Under ERISA, 1210-AB90
- DOL/EBSA, Proposed Rule Stage, Transparency in Coverage, 1210-AB93
- DOL/OSHA, Prerule Stage, Emergency Response, 1218-AC91
- DOL/WHD, Proposed Rule Stage, Tip Regulations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 1235-AA21
- DOL/WHD, Final Rule Stage, Joint Employer Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1235-AA26
- TREAS/CUSTOMS, Final Rule Stage, Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Required for Electronic Entry/Entry Summary (Cargo Release and Related Entry) Filings, 1515-AE03
- TREAS/IRS, Proposed Rule Stage, Treatment of Certain Interests in Corporations as Stock or Indebtedness, 1545-BO18
- TREAS/IRS, Proposed Rule Stage, Rules for Denial of Deduction for Certain Fines, Penalties, and Other Amounts, 1545-BO67
- TREAS/IRS, Proposed Rule Stage, Guidance on the Elimination of Interbank Offered Rates, 1545-BO91
- TREAS/IRS, Proposed Rule Stage, Revisions to the Section 168(k) Final Regulations, 1545-BP32
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Hybrid Dividends and Payments, 1545-BO53
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Section 250 Regulations, 1545-BO55
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Section 59A Proposed Regulations, 1545-BO56
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Rules Regarding Business Interest Limitation Under Section 163(j), 1545-BO73
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Additional First-Year Depreciation
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Capital Gains Invested in Opportunity Zones, 1545-BP03
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Qualified Opportunity Funds, 1545-BP04
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Guidance Under Section 199A (RIC-REIT), 1545-BP12
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Guidance Under Sections 951(b) and 951A, 1545-BP15
- TREAS/IRS, Final Rule Stage, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) Foreign Tax Credit Guidance, 1545-BP19
- TREAS/OCC, Proposed Rule Stage, Reforming the Community Reinvestment Act Regulatory Framework, 1557-AE34
- TREAS/OCC, Final Rule Stage, Net Stable Funding Ratio, 1557-AD97
COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION
- CFTC, Final Rule Stage, Proposed Revisions to Prohibitions and Restrictions on Proprietary Trading and Certain Interests in,and Relationships With, Hedge Funds and Private Equity Funds (Volcker Rule), 3038-A
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
- TREAS/IRS, Application of Various Provisions of Section 2711 of the Public Health Service Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the Internal Revenue Code to Health Reimbursement Arrangements, 1545-BO46
- TREAS/IRS, Guidance Related to Section 951A (Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income Regulations), 1545-BO54
- TREAS/IRS, Foreign Tax Credit Guidance Under Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), 1545-BO62
- TREAS/IRS, State and Local Tax (SALT) Credits and Charitable Contributions, 1545-BO89
