Browse regulations

Federal rule requiring owners and operators of the U.S. Bulk-Power System (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) to comply with reliability standards approved by FERC and developed by the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO). The ERO must post the current standards on its website.

Deleting this would remove mandatory reliability standards for the interstate electric grid, leading to increased blackouts that disrupt households, businesses, and critical infrastructure. The regulation's federal-coordination model via the ERO overcomes the interstate externalities and free-rider problems that would plague state-by-state regulation or rely solely on liability, ensuring system-wide reliability efficiently.

This regulation defines terms and exceptions for banks acting as brokers under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, specifically allowing banks to refer customers to brokers without being classified as brokers themselves, provided certain conditions are met regarding compensation, disclosures, and fiduciary duties.

This regulation creates complex exceptions that enable regulatory capture and crony capitalism, allowing banks to profit from securities referrals while avoiding broker registration requirements. It imposes significant compliance costs on banks and creates loopholes that benefit large financial institutions at the expense of consumers and smaller competitors.

Requires manufacturers of portable generators to provide consumers with standardized carbon monoxide poisoning hazard warnings on both the product and packaging, including specific label design requirements, placement rules, and durability standards to inform users about safety risks.

Creates unnecessary regulatory burden on manufacturers with costly compliance requirements for standardized labeling that could be achieved through market-driven safety information and consumer education without federal mandates.

Federal regulation requiring financial institutions to implement identity theft prevention programs, including detecting red flags, verifying identities, and responding to suspicious activity in covered accounts.

Creates massive regulatory burden on financial institutions with compliance costs passed to consumers, while identity theft is already addressed through existing criminal law and private market solutions like credit monitoring services.

This regulation implements the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act by requiring motor vehicle dealers to provide clear, conspicuous notice and an opt-out option before using consumer eligibility information from affiliates for marketing solicitations. It defines key terms, outlines when a pre-existing business relationship exists, and sets forth detailed rules and exceptions for when affiliate data sharing triggers these requirements.

The regulation imposes significant compliance costs and administrative burden on businesses—especially small dealers—for what is fundamentally a transparency issue the market can handle more efficiently. It federalizes marketing practices, creating complex affirmative obligations that require legal expertise to navigate, while interfering with voluntary commercial relationships. Consumers can already protect their preferences through market choices or simpler disclosure norms; this elaborate framework represents regulatory overreach that adds to the $2 trillion annual compliance tax burden.

Federal franchise regulations require disclosure documents, fee transparency, and contractual terms to protect prospective franchisees from deceptive practices and ensure informed investment decisions.

Americans would be worse off without these regulations as they provide essential consumer protection for small business investors, prevent predatory franchising practices, and create transparency in a complex business relationship where franchisees lack negotiating power.

Regulation governs air charter brokers (intermediaries arranging charter flights but not operating aircraft). Grants limited exemptions from transportation laws while imposing disclosure requirements, prohibitions on deceptive practices, and refund rules to protect consumers in charter aviation transactions.

Without mandated disclosures, consumers could reasonably mistake brokers for carriers in these high-value, infrequent transactions, creating safety and financial risks. Contract law and reputational mechanisms are inadequate here; the asymmetric information problem is severe and specialized. The regulation achieves consumer protection through minimal, targeted transparency requirements that would not emerge voluntarily in a market where brokers benefit from obfuscation. Deleting it would expose travelers to fraud, hidden costs, and confusion about liabilities in an already complex industry.

This regulation mandates that airports, aircraft operators, and other entities grant FAA Aviation Safety Inspectors holding FAA Form 110A free, uninterrupted access to airport facilities including Air Operations Areas, Security Identification Display Areas, and other secured/restricted zones, bypassing normal security access requirements to perform safety inspections and investigations.

Without this access requirement, FAA inspectors cannot effectively perform critical safety inspections that prevent catastrophic accidents. The modest compliance burden is necessary and proportionate to the enormous public safety benefits, with no viable alternative to ensure physical access for oversight. Deleting this regulation would directly endanger American lives by crippling the FAA's ability to enforce aviation safety standards.

This regulation allows the Export-Import Bank to charge fees for conferences, seminars, and publications to cover their costs, with the collected fees credited back to the fund that initially paid for these activities and offset against the Bank's expenses.

This self-funding mechanism reduces taxpayer burden by allowing the Ex-Im Bank to recover costs from beneficiaries of its services rather than relying entirely on federal appropriations. It promotes fiscal responsibility and ensures conference attendees and publication users directly pay for the services they receive.

Regulation defines terms for Third Party Brokerage Arrangements exception from broker definition, establishing compensation rules for bank referrals to brokers, including contingent fees, incentive compensation, and inflation adjustments.

Creates complex regulatory framework that distorts market incentives, imposes compliance costs on banks and brokers, and represents federal overreach into private financial relationships that should be governed by contract law and market forces.

Establishes Privacy Act compliance procedures for the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, defining individual rights to access, correct, and control personal records while setting disclosure limitations and security safeguards.

Americans would be worse off without these privacy protections - individuals need clear procedures to access their own records, correct errors, and control disclosure of personal information held by federal agencies.

This regulation establishes the NRC's procedural framework for licensing nuclear power facilities, including early site permits, design certifications, combined licenses, and manufacturing licenses. It defines key terms, prescribes detailed submission requirements for various communications, prohibits deliberate misconduct and whistleblower discrimination, mandates accurate information reporting, and outlines exemption processes.

The regulation imposes massive compliance costs and procedural complexity that act as a hidden tax on nuclear energy deployment. It represents unconstitutional federal overreach into what should be state jurisdiction under the Tenth Amendment. The licensing regime has stifled nuclear innovation for decades, protecting incumbent utilities from competition while delivering questionable safety benefits that could be achieved through state regulation and robust liability mechanisms. The burdens fall disproportionately on potential new entrants, raising barriers to clean energy development and keeping electricity prices higher than necessary.

Regulation 8 CFR 204.1 prescribes detailed procedures for family-based immigration petitions, including required forms, documentation standards, evidence of citizenship and relationship, and anti-fraud provisions for spousal and widow(er) petitions.

The regulation's hyper-detailed procedural requirements impose massive hidden compliance costs (often $1,000s per petition), create arbitrary barriers to family reunification that favor wealthy petitioners with legal counsel, and violate rule-of-law principles by making the process incomprehensible to ordinary citizens. The unseen costs—prolonged family separation, economic inefficiency, and a lucrative immigration-lawyer cartel—far outweigh any marginal benefit over a dramatically simpler system.

This regulation implements USDA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, establishing detailed rules for competitive grants to small businesses. It defines eligibility (including ownership and size requirements), outlines three phases (feasibility research, R&D, commercialization), and specifies application content ranging from technical proposals to budget justifications and certifications. The program aims to stimulate innovation while ensuring work is performed domestically and benefits disadvantaged and women-owned firms.

Imposes substantial compliance costs on small businesses, distorts innovation through government selection rather than market forces, and wastes taxpayer funds on a program that duplicates private capital markets. The regulatory burden and misallocation of resources outweigh any marginal benefits.

Regulation outlines servicing procedures for USDA Rural Utilities Service water and waste disposal loans and grants, including financial oversight, debt settlement, transfers, and compliance requirements.

Maintaining this federal regime imposes massive hidden compliance costs on rural communities, distorts local utility markets, creates dependency on federal capital, and violates constitutional federalism by intruding on state and local water and waste infrastructure authority. Unseen effects include crowding out private financing, malinvestment, regulatory capture, and erosion of the rule of law.