Browse regulations

This regulation establishes background investigation requirements for key employees and primary management officials in tribal gaming operations, including privacy notices, criminal record checks, investigative reports, and reporting to the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). It covers data collection on personal history, criminal records, employment, and business relationships, with specific procedures for conducting investigations and making eligibility determinations.

Creates massive regulatory burden on tribal gaming operations with extensive data collection requirements that impose significant compliance costs without clear evidence of preventing actual harm. The privacy notices and detailed background checks represent federal overreach into tribal sovereignty, while the reporting requirements to NIGC create unnecessary bureaucracy and potential for regulatory capture. Small tribal casinos face disproportionate compliance costs that could be better addressed through state-level regulation or market-based solutions.

Establishes a voluntary certification process allowing tribes to self-regulate Class II gaming operations on Indian lands, with eligibility requirements including three years of continuous gaming, compliance with state laws, approved tribal ordinances, and maintained records. The program aims to reduce federal oversight while ensuring gaming integrity through tribal regulatory bodies and annual audits.

Creates an unnecessary federal regulatory framework that imposes costly compliance requirements on tribal gaming operations, potentially exceeding $14,000 per household in hidden costs. The self-regulation certification process duplicates existing tribal sovereignty over gaming activities and introduces federal bureaucratic oversight that undermines the principle of limited government.

This regulation establishes uniform administrative procedures for states to receive federal highway safety grants under 23 U.S.C. Chapters 4, 402, and 405. It mandates detailed Highway Safety Plans with performance targets, evidence-based strategies, and extensive reporting; requires state matching funds; prohibits automated traffic enforcement; and outlines federal approval processes and funding distributions through NHTSA.

This represents unconstitutional federal overreach into state police powers. Highway safety is a quintessential Tenth Amendment concern; states should set their own priorities without federal strings. The administrative burden—mandatory planning, performance measurement, certifications, and reporting—imposes substantial compliance costs on states that could be better spent on actual safety programs. Federal grants with conditions create dependency and distort state incentives to chase federal priorities rather than local needs. The program accomplishes through bureaucracy what states could do more efficiently and innovatively on their own, without the $2 trillion+ regulatory burden this regime helps perpetuate.

Regulation outlines procedures for the public to request and access program materials from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which produces international broadcasting content for foreign audiences. It defines eligibility, access methods via websites, subscription agreements, fee structure, and grounds for denial.

It imposes unnecessary administrative costs and regulatory complexity for a function that could be handled through simple agency websites and policies; maintaining this formal CFR part contributes to regulatory bloat without preventing harm or protecting rights in a way that couldn't be achieved more simply.

This regulation prescribes procedures and standard terms for U.S. loan guarantees backing up to $1.25 billion in debt issued by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It establishes USAID's guarantee of 100% principal and interest on eligible notes, pledging full faith and credit of the United States. The framework defines eligibility criteria, application processes for compensation upon default, fiscal agent roles, and operational provisions including arbitration under U.S. law.

This regulation implements a foreign aid program that transfers private lending risk to U.S. taxpayers, creating moral hazard and distorting international capital markets. The guarantee gives Jordan privileged access to credit at taxpayer expense, bypassing market discipline that would otherwise price sovereign risk accurately. It represents federal overreach into international finance and creates open-ended contingent liability for the United States. Even if intended as foreign policy, such interventions undermine free enterprise by socializing losses while privatizing gains for financial institutions.

This regulation establishes standard terms and conditions for U.S. government loan guarantees to Israel, providing 100% backing for repayment of up to $9 billion in loans between 2003-2016, with the full faith and credit of the United States pledged to ensure payment of principal and interest to noteholders.

This represents a massive government subsidy that distorts market incentives, exposes U.S. taxpayers to billions in potential liability, and violates principles of limited government by having the federal government guarantee private debt obligations. The regulation creates moral hazard by encouraging risky lending and removes natural market discipline.

FDA regulation requires medical device manufacturers to assign Unique Device Identifiers (UDIs) to products, submit detailed device data to the Global UDI Database (GUDID), and maintain ongoing reporting and record-keeping. Establishes accreditation for private issuing agencies or allows FDA to operate the system directly, with compliance mandated for all covered devices.

Imposes massive hidden compliance costs across the medical device industry, disproportionately burdening small businesses with fixed costs that stifle competition and innovation. Creates a permanent federal surveillance infrastructure that enables mission creep and regulatory capture, while federalizing a function properly reserved to states under the Tenth Amendment—violating constitutional federalism and concentrating power in unelected bureaucrats.

These regulations impose good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements and postmarketing safety reporting mandates on combination products (drug-device-biologic combinations). GMP standards require extensive documentation, quality control systems, and production protocols, while postmarketing rules mandate adverse event monitoring and reporting. The regulations create a unified regulatory framework for products crossing traditional FDA product categories, ensuring comprehensive oversight throughout the product lifecycle.

The regulations erect significant barriers to entry through compliance costs that favor established firms, suppress competition and innovation in medical product markets, and represent federal overreach into areas better governed by state laws and market mechanisms. Safety and quality can be achieved more efficiently through tort liability, insurance underwriting, private accreditation, and reputational incentives, avoiding the unintended consequences of regulatory capture, reduced product diversity, and delayed patient access to innovative therapies.

This regulation establishes registration and operational requirements for swap execution facilities under the Commodity Exchange Act, including minimum trading functionality, registration procedures, temporary registration, equity interest transfers, and execution methods for required and permitted transactions.

This regulation creates costly compliance burdens that distort financial markets, protects incumbent institutions through regulatory capture, and imposes federal oversight on activities that could be governed by state law or private contract. The administrative complexity serves entrenched interests rather than protecting consumers.

Federal regulation requiring hand-held infant carriers to comply with ASTM F2050-19 safety standard, with compliance enforced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission

This federal mandate imposes significant compliance costs that disproportionately harm small manufacturers while preempting state and local authority under the Tenth Amendment. Safety can be adequately addressed through state-level regulation, market mechanisms (liability, reputation, private certification), and parental discretion. The hidden tax of compliance distorts incentives, reduces competition, and creates barriers to entry—the very antithesis of free enterprise. The unseen costs—lost innovation, higher consumer prices, and eroded federalism—outweigh any marginal safety benefits, especially given that the standard itself may be captured by incumbent manufacturers.

Federal safety standard for bassinets and cradles, incorporating ASTM F2194-25 by reference, setting mandatory requirements for these infant products.

Federal regulation of bassinet safety represents unconstitutional overreach into state police powers, imposes significant compliance costs on manufacturers (especially small businesses) that are ultimately passed to consumers, and undermines parental liberty to assess product risks. Market mechanisms and state-level standards—not federal mandates—are the proper means to ensure product safety while preserving competitive innovation and affordable choices for American families.

Regulation bans six phthalates (DEHP, DBP, BBP permanently; DINP, DIDP, DnOP conditionally) at >0.1% concentration in children's toys/child care articles for kids ≤12 years, with expanded criteria for products that can be mouthed. Establishes accessibility standards using probes and age-specific abuse tests, providing compliance pathways for encased components while excluding intentional disassembly by older children from consideration.

The $2T+ annual regulatory burden cannot be justified by uncertain health benefits from phthalate exposure at these thresholds. The science on low-dose phthalate effects remains contested, and market forces—parental risk aversion, retailer standards, tort liability—already drive phthalate reduction. Federal overreach under the Commerce Clause usurps states' traditional police power to regulate product safety. Compliance costs hit small toy manufacturers hardest, raising barriers to entry and protecting corporate incumbents—exactly the regulatory capture the framers warned against. Parents, not bureaucrats, should decide acceptable risk for their children.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) imposes a comprehensive federal regime requiring operators of websites or online services directed to children, or those with actual knowledge they're collecting from children under 13, to provide detailed notice to parents and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing any personal information. It defines 'personal information' extremely broadly (including persistent identifiers, geolocation, biometric data, etc.), mandates security procedures, grants parents review/deletion rights, and prohibits conditioning participation on excessive data collection. The rule creates extensive paperwork, consent, and recordkeeping burdens for any entity interacting with child users online.

This regulation imposes substantial compliance costs that fall disproportionately on small businesses and startups, creating barriers to entry and protecting established incumbents—the classic regulatory capture outcome. It federalizes what should be parental responsibility and state-level oversight through an expansive Commerce Clause reading, violating constitutional federalism principles. The broad definition of 'personal information' captures fundamental web technologies like cookies and IP addresses, interfering with normal internet functionality and stifling innovation in educational and recreational services for children. Market forces already incentivize privacy protection, as parents choose services they trust, and existing state consumer protection laws can address truly deceptive practices without this one-size-fits-all mandate that costs billions annually in compliance while reducing choices for families.

A federal program providing guarantees for $100M+ bond issues to support CDFI lending for community/economic development in low-income areas, with federal backing of up to $1B per issue and strict collateral requirements.

Creates moral hazard through federal guarantees, distorts credit markets by favoring politically connected CDFIs over unsubsidized lenders, and perpetuates dependency on federal backing rather than sustainable private lending. The program's $2 trillion annual regulatory compliance costs demonstrate how federal interventions create unseen downstream effects that harm economic efficiency.

Regulation establishes Community Investment Cash Advance (CICA) programs for Federal Home Loan Banks, mandating subsidized financing for housing and economic development projects serving low-to-moderate income households, small businesses, and designated geographic areas. It defines eligibility criteria, income targeting rules, requires annual plans, and borrower certifications to ensure compliance.

Mandates demographic-based lending, distorting credit markets and creating moral hazard. Imposes compliance burdens for certifications and reporting. Federal overreach into local economic development duplicates other programs and likely reduces credit availability for non-targeted borrowers.