Browse regulations

This regulation establishes a permit system for commercial filming and still photography on federal lands managed by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It requires permits for all commercial filming and for still photography that uses models/sets/props or when the agency determines necessary due to location or management costs. News gathering is exempt from permit requirements and fees. The regulation outlines denial grounds, imposes permit conditions, requires liability insurance and bonds, and charges location fees plus cost recovery.

The permit system creates a prior restraint on economic activity, imposing significant compliance costs, processing delays, and uncertainty—disproportionately burdening small independent producers. Discretionary approval invites regulatory capture and arbitrary enforcement. Identical legitimate goals (resource protection, safety, visitor experience) are achievable through less restrictive means: strict liability for damages, insurance requirements, and simple notification systems. The fee structure incentivizes agencies to expand their regulatory reach while stifling commercial creative activity on public lands.

Regulation defines Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) for Medicare, sets eligibility requirements including governing body composition and conflict-of-interest prohibitions, and outlines CMS selection process for 5-year contracts.

This regulation imposes a costly, duplicative layer of healthcare quality review on Medicare providers, increasing compliance burdens and administrative overhead. Market mechanisms like liability, reputation, and patient choice already drive quality improvement; governmentmandated QIO reviews add bureaucracy without clear benefit, violating federalism principles by centralizing quality assessment and creating barriers to entry for review organizations.

This regulation establishes the NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs), which provide taxpayer-funded educational debt repayment (up to $50,000 annually plus tax payments) to health professionals who commit to conducting biomedical or behavioral research. The programs have two tracks: Intramural (for NIH employees) and Extramural (for non-NIH researchers with nonprofit support). The regulation defines eligible research areas (AIDS, contraception/infertility, pediatrics, minority health disparities, clinical research, disadvantaged backgrounds, emerging fields), eligibility criteria, application processes, and payment mechanisms.

This program violates core constitutional principles of limited government and federalism by using federal power to subsidize individual career choices—a proper role for private markets or states, not DC bureaucrats. It creates market distortions by artificially manipulating incentives, potentially encouraging students to take on excessive debt knowing government may forgive it. The 'picking winners and losers' approach (specifying approved research categories) embodies regulatory capture; government cannot know which research directions are most valuable. The complex eligibility rules add to the regulatory burden. If biomedical researchers are truly needed, private foundations, universities, and competitive salaries will provide appropriate signals. Taxpayers would be better off keeping this money. The program also imposes huge compliance costs to administer, dwarfing any benefits. The hidden tax burden (>$14,000 per household) makes this redistribution particularly offensive to liberty.

The Postal Regulatory Commission is an independent federal agency that oversees the U.S. Postal Service, regulating postal rates, adjudicating service complaints, reviewing post office closures, and producing annual compliance reports. It maintains a modern system of rate regulation, consults on delivery standards and international postal policies, and provides public participation mechanisms through appointed representatives.

This agency represents regulatory overreach into a service that should be fully privatized. The Postal Service could operate competitively without federal rate regulation, and the $2+ trillion in regulatory compliance costs demonstrates how agencies like this create hidden taxes. Small businesses and consumers would benefit from market-based pricing rather than bureaucratic oversight, and states could handle any necessary consumer protection measures under constitutional federalism.

The Rural Veterans Coordination Pilot (RVCP) is a federal grant program awarding up to 5 two-year grants to community-based organizations and state/local governments to assist veterans transitioning to civilian life in rural or underserved areas. Grantees must spend at least 90% of funds on direct services like healthcare coordination, mental health access, family assistance, and outreach, with the remaining 10% for indirect costs. The program includes competitive scoring, quarterly reporting, and compliance monitoring by the VA.

This program represents unconstitutional federal overreach into areas properly handled by states, localities, and private charities under the Tenth Amendment. It adds bureaucratic complexity and compliance costs that burden both grantees and taxpayers, while potentially distorting the market for veteran services. The selective geographic and demographic targeting creates inequitable access and invites regulatory capture. Federal spending on such programs contributes to the $2 trillion annual regulatory burden—a hidden tax exceeding $14,000 per household—that stifles economic freedom and concentrates power in Washington.

Capital grants program providing up to 65% federal funding for construction, renovation, or acquisition of facilities and vans to serve homeless veterans, with extensive eligibility criteria, matching fund requirements, and supportive services mandates.

Creates permanent federal infrastructure for a state/local responsibility, distorts housing markets through government intervention, and establishes costly bureaucratic oversight that could be replaced by direct vouchers or state-level programs without federal involvement.

Establishes a predecisional objection process for Forest Service land management projects, detailing eligibility requirements, filing procedures, timeline restrictions, and review mechanisms. Only those who submitted prior specific written comments during scoping may object, with strict formatting, content, and deadline requirements. The process applies to projects documented with Decision Notices or Records of Decision, with special rules for hazardous fuel reduction projects under HFRA.

This regulation imposes significant administrative costs and delays on forest management projects while creating a procedural maze that favors well-resourced special interests over ordinary citizens and small businesses. The requirement to have submitted 'specific written comments during scoping' creates a high barrier to entry that excludes most Americans from participating in decisions about public lands they own. The rigid formatting rules, incorporation-by-reference limitations, and exacting content requirements elevate form over substance, allowing technical deficiencies to defeat legitimate concerns about land use decisions. The 30-45 day filing windows and newspaper-of-record publication requirements are outdated, costly relics that do not improve decision quality but effectively ration access to administrative review based on resources and sophistication. This process exemplifies regulatory capture: it creates an appearance of public participation while ensuring only organized, repeat players (environmental NGOs, industry groups, tribes) can effectively navigate it. The Forest Service should manage lands transparently but without this burdensome administrative layer that slows critical projects like wildfire fuel reduction and timber management, imposes millions in compliance costs annually, and violates the rule of law by making citizen participation needlessly complex. Project-specific concerns can be raised through NEPA's existing public comment process without this separate, duplicative apparatus.

This part establishes administrative appeal procedures for Forest Service decisions affecting holders, operators, and solicited applicants with written authorizations for National Forest System lands. It defines appealable decisions (grazing permits, mineral operations, special uses), sets filing requirements (45-day deadline), outlines procedures (intervention, oral presentations, stays), and provides review by Appeal Deciding Officers and discretionary review by higher officials.

Americans would be worse off without this appeals process because it provides essential due process and checks on administrative power. The regulation creates the only mechanism for affected parties to challenge arbitrary, erroneous, or abusive Forest Service decisions that impact their livelihoods and property rights. Deleting it would concentrate unchecked authority in Responsible Officials, eliminate accountability, and undermine the rule of law principle that government decisions must be reviewable. The regulation achieves its fairness objectives efficiently through structured timelines, limited grounds for appeal, and optional mediation—making administrative review accessible while preventing frivolous challenges.

Implements DoD review procedures for FAA permit applications and energy projects to assess and mitigate adverse impacts on military operations and readiness from structures posing national security risks.

Americans would be worse off without it because it protects military readiness—a core national security function—from degradation by development projects. The regulation achieves this through a targeted, collaborative process that balances energy development with security needs via structured mitigation discussions, preventing unchecked interference with training ranges and operations. Deleting it would leave DoD without a formal voice in FAA permitting, risking operational capability.

Regulation designates eligible financial institutions (FDIC/NCUA-insured banks, credit unions, etc.) as government depositaries, sets authorization procedures, requires collateral security for public funds, and imposes affirmative action requirements (EEO, Rehabilitation Act, VEVRAA) on participating institutions.

This regulation imposes costly compliance burdens on private financial institutions, distorts competition by creating a government-approved class of depositaries, and centralizes control over banking that properly belongs to states. The collateral requirements and affirmative action mandates add administrative overhead that gets passed to consumers. The government's interest in protecting deposits can be achieved through market discipline, competitive bidding, and existing state/federal banking regulations without creating a centralized designation system that favors incumbents and raises barriers to entry.

This regulation establishes MSHA's 'pattern of violations' (POV) procedure under the Mine Act. It mandates annual review of mine compliance records to identify mines with recurrent 'significant and substantial' (S&S) violations. Mines found to have a pattern receive a public notice; any subsequent S&S violation within 90 days triggers mandatory withdrawal orders (shutdowns) of affected areas, with all further S&S violations resulting in continued shutdowns until abated.

This federal regulation represents unconstitutional overreach into intrastate mining under an expansive Commerce Clause. The compliance costs impose a hidden tax—disproportionately on small mines—while draconian withdrawal orders destroy businesses for procedural noncompliance rather than improving actual safety. Safety is better achieved through state oversight, tort liability, market-based insurance incentives, and voluntary standards respecting miners' autonomy, avoiding the inevitable unintended consequences and regulatory capture of federal mandates.

Procedural rules for administrative hearings challenging temporary cease and desist orders under ERISA Section 521, covering filing, service, discovery, settlement, appeals, and party participation before administrative law judges.

Deletion would create procedural uncertainty in enforcement proceedings where the government restricts liberty, undermining due process and rule of law. These rules achieve fair, predictable hearings through standardized processes that would be difficult to replicate ad hoc, protecting respondents from arbitrary agency action.

FMLA requires employers with 50+ employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for family/medical reasons, with health benefits continuation. Applies to employees with 12 months and 1,250 hours of service.

FMLA imposes heavy compliance costs, particularly on small businesses, and creates a regulatory cliff at 50 employees that distorts hiring. The mandate reduces labor market flexibility, forces uniform terms, and lowers wages as employers adjust compensation. Unseen consequences include reduced employment for women, increased use of contractors to avoid coverage, and substitution away from other benefits, exceeding the federal government's proper role in private employment contracts.

This regulation implements the Health Insurance Providers Fee under the Affordable Care Act, imposing an annual fee on health insurance providers based on their net premiums written, with specific definitions, reporting requirements, and calculation methods.

This tax on health insurance providers increases premiums for consumers, creates compliance costs for businesses, and represents federal overreach into healthcare markets that should be left to states and free market competition.

Establishes tribal licensing authority for key gaming employees but imposes federal oversight through NIGC's 30-day objection period, mandatory notifications, record-keeping, and revocation procedures.

Imposes compliance costs on tribes through bureaucratic requirements, creates hiring delays, and undermines tribal sovereignty. The unseen effect is chilling tribal economic development and employment by inserting federal bureaucracy into what should be purely tribal self-regulation.