Browse regulations

This regulation outlines procedures and terms for USAID loan guarantees backing up to $1 billion in debt issued by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It guarantees 100% of principal and interest to private noteholders, using the full faith and credit of the United States, with detailed claims procedures, eligibility requirements, and arbitration provisions.

This represents a $1 billion contingent liability of U.S. taxpayers to subsidize foreign borrowing by Jordan. Private lenders are perfectly capable of assessing Jordan's credit risk and pricing loans accordingly without U.S. government guarantees. The guarantee distorts international capital markets, creates moral hazard by removing market discipline on Jordan's borrowing, and transfers risk from willing private investors to American taxpayers. The detailed bureaucratic machinery for processing claims demonstrates unnecessary federal expansion into activities that properly belong to private finance. If Jordan cannot obtain affordable financing on market terms, that reflects legitimate credit concerns—not a market failure requiring government intervention. Foreign aid, if Congress desires it, should be transparent direct appropriations, not disguised as loan guarantees that obscure true costs and expose taxpayers to potential losses.

This regulation provides a $1 billion loan guarantee to Ukraine for borrowing during a 30-day window after April 14, 2014, under the Support for Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy, and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act of 2014. The guarantee ensures 100% repayment of principal and interest to Noteholders, with the full faith and credit of the United States pledged. It establishes procedures for compensation claims through USAID when Ukraine defaults on payments, defines terms and conditions, and creates a framework for fiscal agency services and arbitration.

This is a foreign aid loan guarantee that exposes American taxpayers to $1 billion in potential losses for a country with questionable economic policies and governance. The regulation creates moral hazard by encouraging risky lending to Ukraine, knowing the US government backs 100% of losses. It represents unconstitutional federal overreach into foreign economic affairs and violates the principle that government should not guarantee private debt. The unseen costs include distorting global capital markets and creating dependency on US taxpayer funds.

Establishes procedures for accessing Department of State public diplomacy materials created for foreign audiences under the Smith-Mundt Act. Materials are made freely available online; unavailable items require FOIA requests; the Department may remove outdated material; requesters must comply with terms of use and may incur fees for special requests.

Deleting this rule would reduce transparency and public access, forcing all requests through the more burdensome FOIA process and enabling arbitrary withholding. It provides low-barrier access while ensuring compliance with copyright and records laws, thereby checking agency power.

Establishes the Department of State's security classification program implementing Executive Order 13526, defining classification levels, procedures for original and derivative classification, marking requirements, declassification processes, and access controls for national security information.

This regulation protects critical national security information essential for U.S. foreign relations and defense. Without it, sensitive military plans, intelligence sources, diplomatic communications, and nuclear security information would be vulnerable to unauthorized disclosure, potentially causing grave damage to national security.

Regulates the disposal of controlled substances by practitioners, non-practitioners, and collectors through various methods including on-site destruction, reverse distribution, take-back events, mail-back programs, and collection receptacles to prevent diversion and ensure public safety.

Creates a complex bureaucratic framework that burdens small pharmacies and healthcare providers with excessive compliance costs and paperwork, while the underlying goal of preventing drug diversion could be achieved through simpler market-based solutions and state-level regulation.

Establishes user fee system funding FDA tobacco regulation, requiring manufacturers/importers to pay quarterly assessments based on excise tax contributions and product volume, with detailed monthly reporting and enforcement via product adulteration designation.

Hidden tax that distorts tobacco market, disproportionately burdens small businesses through complex compliance, and represents unconstitutional federal overreach into personal choice. The regulatory capture element protects large incumbents while raising barriers to entry, all for a regulatory regime that exceed FDA's legitimate safety mandate.

Medical Device Reporting (MDR) regulation requires device user facilities, manufacturers, importers, and distributors to report deaths, serious injuries, and malfunctions to FDA, establish adverse event files, and submit annual reports to protect public health by ensuring device safety and effectiveness.

Creates excessive compliance costs and bureaucratic burden that disproportionately harms small businesses while providing minimal public safety benefit beyond existing liability and tort systems. The $2 trillion annual regulatory compliance cost burden, with per-employee costs 30% higher for small firms, creates barriers to entry that protect established players rather than improving safety. Most reporting requirements duplicate information already available through product liability lawsuits and market forces. The complex 185,000+ page CFR labyrinth makes compliance impossible to fully understand, violating rule of law principles.

Requires electronic submission of Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSRs) containing detailed patient, adverse event, suspect product, reporter, and responsible person information to the FDA for serious adverse drug events, with patient privacy protections through de-identification.

Maintaining this regulation imposes heavy compliance costs on businesses, especially small firms, diverting resources from innovation and job creation. It perpetuates a centralized federal bureaucracy that displaces more effective state-level oversight and market-driven safety mechanisms like tort liability. Unseen costs include reduced competition, higher drug prices, and regulatory capture where incumbents shape rules to their advantage.

Defines 'qualifying pathogen' for section 505E of the FD&C Act, enumerating 21 microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, and mycobacteria.

Enables targeted incentives for developing antibiotics against critical pathogens; deletion would create legal uncertainty, hindering innovation and patient access without reducing any actual compliance burden.

Comprehensive federal regulations governing infant formula manufacturing under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Includes Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), quality controls, nutrient requirements, recordkeeping mandates, facility/equipment standards, personnel requirements, testing protocols, and registration with FDA. Non-compliance renders formula 'adulterated' and illegal to distribute.

Massive compliance costs are passed to parents, creating a hidden tax on infant nutrition. Overly prescriptive one-size-fits-all requirements raise barriers to entry, protecting incumbent manufacturers from competition—small firms bear 30% higher per-employee compliance costs. Federal overreach displaces state authority under the Tenth Amendment. The labyrinthine rules (requiring specific temperatures, frequencies, procedures) assume centralized knowledge impossible for regulators to possess, violating the rule of law's knowability principle. Private alternatives—outcome-based standards, third-party certification, product liability insurance, and tort law—can ensure safety without regulatory capture and deadweight loss.

Definitions for federal employment services regulations covering agricultural recruitment, workforce development, and labor market information systems

This is a definitional framework for employment services that creates bureaucratic overhead without clear constitutional authority. The vast majority of employment regulation belongs at state/local level under Tenth Amendment. These definitions enable federal micromanagement of labor markets, occupational licensing, and workforce development that distorts free market signals and raises barriers to entry for small businesses.

Establishes XML as the data exchange standard for unemployment insurance systems, including ICON real-time applications and SIDES data exchange modules, with compliance deadlines for states using federal funds for IT modernization projects.

Creates costly federal mandates for state unemployment systems that distort local priorities, increases compliance burdens on states, and exemplifies federal overreach into state-level unemployment administration without clear evidence of benefits exceeding costs.

Requires reporting entities to submit large position reports for Treasury securities when they exceed specified thresholds, tracking positions across multiple categories including outright holdings, settlement obligations, and derivatives contracts to monitor market concentration and potential manipulation risks.

Creates excessive compliance burden on financial institutions without clear evidence of preventing market manipulation. The reporting requirements generate massive amounts of data that Treasury cannot effectively analyze, while imposing significant costs on market participants. Market forces naturally limit concentration risks through arbitrage and competition.

The Volcker Rule prohibits banking entities from engaging in proprietary trading (trading for their own profit rather than on behalf of customers) and restricts investments in hedge funds and private equity funds to reduce systemic risk in the financial system following the 2008 financial crisis.

This regulation imposes massive compliance costs on banks, distorts market liquidity, reduces legitimate trading activities that benefit customers, and creates artificial barriers that protect large institutions while harming smaller banks. The unseen costs include reduced market efficiency, higher transaction costs for consumers, and the diversion of resources from productive activities to regulatory compliance.

Extends U.S. securities antifraud provisions to conduct within the U.S. that furthers violations, and to foreign conduct with substantial U.S. effects, regardless of investor nationality or location of transactions.

Americans would be worse off if this was deleted because it prevents U.S. investors from being defrauded through foreign schemes and protects U.S. markets from manipulation by foreign actors, maintaining market integrity and investor confidence.