Browse regulations

Regulation governing distilled spirits plant operations including permits, tax payments, production processes, storage, and record-keeping requirements.

Creates massive compliance burden on small businesses, enables regulatory capture through complex bureaucracy, and federalizes what should be state/local oversight. The $2 trillion annual regulatory compliance cost demonstrates how these regulations distort markets and protect large incumbents while harming competition.

Imposes an annual fee on pharmaceutical manufacturers and importers based on branded prescription drug sales to government healthcare programs, administered by IRS with data collection from CMS, VA, and DoD.

Creates a hidden tax that distorts pharmaceutical pricing, increases compliance costs, and ultimately raises drug prices for consumers while providing no direct healthcare benefits.

Regulation establishes HUD's authority to declare public housing agencies in substantial default for violations of federal law/regulation or failure to cure performance deficiencies, with procedures for notification, response, and remedies including technical assistance, receivership, or possession takeover.

This federal regulatory structure over public housing agencies represents unconstitutional federal overreach into local housing affairs, creating expensive bureaucracy that displaces local accountability. The 'substantial default' framework and federal takeover powers (receivership/possession) violate Tenth Amendment principles by federalizing what should be state and local responsibilities. The $2 trillion regulatory burden includes such duplicative oversight mechanisms that punish PHAs for technical violations while doing nothing to improve actual housing outcomes—Hayek's 'pretense of knowledge' in action. This regulation assumes federal bureaucrats can better manage local housing than residents and local officials, creating moral hazard and dependency. Repeal would force PHAs to answer directly to their communities, not Washington, restoring market discipline and constitutional federalism.

The Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) is a federal performance measurement framework for public housing agencies (PHAs) that evaluates physical condition, financial management, and operational performance through standardized inspections and financial reporting, with scoring thresholds that trigger rewards or remedial requirements.

This creates a massive federal bureaucracy that micromanages local public housing operations through complex scoring systems, imposes $2+ trillion in compliance costs on PHAs, and centralizes authority that should remain with states and localities under the Tenth Amendment. The unseen costs include distorted incentives, regulatory capture by large PHAs, and barriers to innovative local solutions.

Federal grant program administered by HUD providing funds to states, localities, and nonprofits for emergency shelters, street outreach, homelessness prevention, and rapid re-housing services, with detailed eligibility rules and funding allocations based on prior Community Development Block Grant formulas.

Violates Tenth Amendment by federalizing local homelessness response; imposes 7.5% administrative cap plus compliance costs that divert funds from direct aid; crowds out private charity and state/local innovation; creates dependency on federal funds and distorts local priorities through regulated grant requirements. The unseen cost is bureaucratization of compassionate action.

Establishes uniform criteria for state seat belt use surveys, including sampling requirements, data collection protocols, and reporting standards to ensure consistent measurement of seat belt compliance across states.

This regulation represents federal micromanagement of state highway safety programs that should be a state responsibility. The detailed sampling requirements, observation protocols, and bureaucratic reporting create unnecessary compliance costs without improving public safety outcomes. States can effectively measure seat belt use through their own methods without federal oversight, and the $2 trillion annual regulatory compliance burden demonstrates the need to eliminate such federal intrusions into state and local matters.

FDA regulations governing substantial equivalence determinations for tobacco products, establishing a premarket review process where manufacturers must demonstrate their new tobacco products are substantially equivalent to existing products or have characteristics that don't raise different public health questions.

This regulatory framework creates a massive bureaucratic barrier to entry in the tobacco industry, effectively granting FDA bureaucrats veto power over product innovation. The $2 trillion annual compliance cost burden, combined with the 90-day premarket review requirement and extensive documentation demands, disproportionately harms small businesses while protecting established tobacco companies from competition. The system relies on FDA's discretionary determinations about 'public health' rather than clear statutory standards, enabling regulatory capture and mission creep far beyond congressional intent.

Provides workers' compensation benefits for non-citizen non-resident federal employees injured outside the US, Canada, or territories, with special compensation schedules and limitations on benefits compared to standard FECA coverage

Creates a two-tiered compensation system that discriminates based on citizenship and residency status, imposes artificial caps on benefits that may be below local standards, and adds bureaucratic complexity without clear justification for why federal employees abroad should receive different treatment than domestic employees

FECA provides workers' compensation benefits to federal employees and certain volunteers for work-related injuries, covering wage loss, medical care, vocational rehab, and survivor benefits through a non-adversarial claims process.

Federal employees need protection from workplace injuries. Without this system, injured workers would face financial hardship, lack medical care, and have no legal recourse for work-related injuries. The non-adversarial process ensures fair compensation without costly litigation.

Prohibits fraudulent and manipulative practices in commodity and swap transactions, including deceptive devices, false statements, false market reports, and price manipulation attempts.

General fraud laws already prohibit this conduct. This specialized regulation imposes substantial compliance costs, creates regulatory capture risks, and disproportionately burdens small market participants. Unseen effects include market distortions, reduced innovation in financial products, and chilling of legitimate trading through ambiguous boundaries that invite over-enforcement.

The Commodity Exchange Act's whistleblower program incentivizes individuals to report violations by offering monetary awards for original information leading to successful enforcement actions, with specific procedures for submission and confidentiality protections.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it provides essential financial incentives for uncovering market manipulation and fraud in commodity trading, protecting investors and maintaining market integrity that would be difficult to achieve through other means.

This regulation implements FCRA provisions requiring covered affiliates to disclose and allow consumers to opt out of sharing eligibility information for marketing purposes between affiliated financial entities

Creates unnecessary compliance costs for financial businesses while providing minimal consumer protection benefit - consumers can already avoid unwanted marketing by simply not engaging with affiliated companies

Regulates swap data repositories (SDRs) under Dodd-Frank, establishing registration requirements, operational standards, data validation procedures, and oversight mechanisms for financial derivatives market transparency and risk management.

Creates massive regulatory bureaucracy for financial derivatives markets that increases compliance costs, distorts market incentives, and provides little public benefit while entrenching existing market players through regulatory capture.

Regulates foreign boards of trade that provide direct electronic trading access to U.S. participants, requiring registration with the CFTC and compliance with U.S. standards for market integrity, clearing, and information sharing.

This regulation imposes U.S. regulatory requirements on foreign exchanges, creating compliance costs that ultimately reduce market efficiency and competition. The foreign boards already face oversight in their home countries, and U.S. intervention adds redundant layers of bureaucracy that benefit incumbent U.S. exchanges while raising costs for American traders.

This regulation defines key terms and establishes procedures for the submission, certification, and approval of rules and products by designated contract markets, swap execution facilities, and derivatives clearing organizations under the Commodity Exchange Act.

This regulatory framework creates unnecessary bureaucratic overhead for financial market participants, imposing costly compliance procedures that stifle innovation and market efficiency while duplicating existing legal protections for market integrity.