Browse regulations

This regulation establishes procedures for waiving debts from erroneous military and civilian DoD pay/allowance payments, creating a bureaucratic process with multiple decision points based on debt amount and component.

This regulation creates unnecessary bureaucratic complexity for what should be a straightforward contractual error correction. The multi-tiered decision process based on arbitrary $1,500 thresholds and component-specific procedures adds compliance costs without meaningful benefit. Erroneous payments should be treated as simple contract disputes resolved through existing legal channels, not requiring a specialized federal waiver bureaucracy.

Establishes policy for settling personnel and general claims under various statutes for DoD components and specified non-DoD components (Coast Guard, PHS, NOAA). Assigns authority to the General Counsel and component heads for processing claims, rendering advance decisions, and establishing internal procedures.

Deletion would eliminate due process protections for military members, veterans, and federal employees seeking to settle claims against the government, including deceased service members' estates and missing personnel property. Without this framework, there would be no standardized, fair administrative process, leading to arbitrary claim denials and potential constitutional violations.

ESCAT establishes joint DoD/DOT/FAA/DHS procedures for controlling civil and military air traffic during air defense emergencies, defense emergencies, or national emergencies. It defines an 8-tier priority system (EATPL) for flight operations and grants military authorities final say over airspace control measures when implemented.

National defense is a core constitutional function. This emergency plan authorizes temporary, contingency-only restrictions on air traffic during wartime or attacking conditions—legitimate exercises of federal war powers. Unlike routine regulations that burrow into peaceful commerce, ESCAT is dormant unless triggered by attack or imminent threat, with built-in coordination between agencies and Canada (NORAD). Repealing it would create legal uncertainty during moments of existential peril.

Establishes regulations for Restoration Advisory Boards (RABs) at DoD installations to provide stakeholder involvement in environmental restoration, including board composition, operations, funding, and dissolution procedures.

This regulation creates a costly bureaucratic structure that duplicates existing environmental oversight mechanisms. The $2+ trillion annual regulatory compliance burden includes such administrative overhead that serves no essential function - communities already have multiple channels to engage with DoD environmental issues through existing public comment periods, EPA oversight, and state environmental agencies. The complex membership selection, training requirements, and administrative support provisions add unnecessary costs while providing no meaningful benefit beyond what current law already mandates.

DoD regulation establishing procedures for base closure and realignment property disposal, including federal agency transfers, economic development conveyances, and coordination with Local Redevelopment Authorities to facilitate community reuse.

Keeping this regulation imposes massive unseen costs: bureaucratic delays depress property values, compliance paperwork wastes taxpayer resources, and federal redevelopment planning distorts market allocation. The Tenth Amendment is violated as land use decisions are federalized. Most critically, government-directed redevelopment crowds out private initiative and entrepreneurial discovery that would better serve communities through voluntary transactions.

This regulation implements the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000, extending U.S. criminal jurisdiction to certain military personnel, former service members, and civilians employed by or accompanying the Armed Forces outside the United States. It defines the scope, procedures, and responsibilities for exercising this jurisdiction, ensuring that crimes committed abroad by these individuals can be prosecuted in U.S. courts.

The costs of maintaining this regulation are high, including administrative burdens and potential diplomatic tensions. It also creates a complex jurisdictional framework that can lead to unintended consequences, such as overreach in foreign countries and potential conflicts with local laws. The regulation's benefits do not outweigh these costs, and it can be better addressed through existing international agreements and military justice systems.

Regulation establishes policies and procedures for personal commercial solicitation on DoD installations, including licensing, prohibited practices, and administrative controls for agents and companies.

High compliance costs ($2T/year) and regulatory capture risks (foxes design the henhouse) undermine liberty and free enterprise. Excessive bureaucracy stifles commerce and contradicts constitutional federalism principles.

The Judgment Fund provides a permanent appropriation for paying judicially and administratively ordered monetary awards against the United States, including court judgments and settlements negotiated by the Department of Justice. Managed by Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service, it requires four tests to be met: awards must be final, monetary, authorized by statute, and not payable from other sources. The fund handles various payment types including court judgments, administrative awards, back pay, and costs, with specific procedures for minors, multiple claimants, and interest calculations.

The Judgment Fund is essential for ensuring the federal government can fulfill its legal obligations when courts and administrative bodies order it to pay damages. Without this mechanism, the government would effectively be immune from adverse judgments, undermining the rule of law and citizens' ability to obtain remedies against federal wrongdoing. The fund operates as a neutral payment mechanism that doesn't create new liabilities but simply ensures existing legal obligations are honored.

This regulation establishes requirements for surety corporations to appoint process agents when bonds cross state lines, ensuring legal service of process can be delivered across jurisdictions.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it ensures legal accountability across state lines. Without it, injured parties would have no reliable way to sue out-of-state surety corporations, effectively creating immunity for bad actors and undermining contract enforcement.

This ERISA regulation establishes a process for qualified termination administrators (typically the financial institution holding plan assets) to wind up and distribute assets from abandoned individual account retirement plans (e.g., 401(k)s). It defines when a plan is deemed abandoned, outlines notification requirements to participants and the Department of Labor, specifies distribution procedures (defaulting to IRAs), and provides liability protections for administrators who follow the process. It also includes special rules for plans of companies in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Without this regulation, abandoned retirement plans would trap workers' savings indefinitely with no clear legal mechanism for distribution. The regulation fills a critical gap: when plan sponsors vanish, a neutral fiduciary (the asset custodian) is authorized to act in participants' best interest. Repeal would cause severe unseen harm—retirement money stuck in limbo, increasing fees, and participants losing access to their property. The federal framework preempts conflicting state laws and provides essential safe harbor, enabling the very function that the private market cannot coordinate on its own.

This regulation establishes procedures for obtaining information and records from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), including request submission, processing, fees, and exemptions.

FOIA access is essential for government transparency and accountability. Without these procedures, citizens would have no systematic way to obtain public records from OSHRC, undermining the public's ability to monitor occupational safety enforcement and administrative decisions.

This 28 CFR regulation governs Bureau of Prisons inmate classification and program review procedures, including obsolete Youth Corrections Act (repealed 1984) provisions and detailed Central Inmate Monitoring (CIM) systems for special management cases like witnesses, gang members, and high-profile inmates.

Blends obsolete YCA procedures (statutory repeal acknowledged) with excessive micromanagement of prison administration. Detailed mandates on notice periods, review frequencies, report contents, and program participation create bureaucratic burdens that divert resources from core penological functions while reducing necessary institutional flexibility. The regulation represents regulatory debris that inflates compliance costs without demonstrable safety or rehabilitative benefits.

Two regulations: (1) ITVERP reimburses U.S. nationals for international terrorism victimization expenses outside the U.S.; (2) VOCA grants fund state victim assistance programs with 40% directed to priority categories (sexual assault, spousal abuse, child abuse) and 10% to underserved victims.

These programs provide critical victim support services that would be difficult to coordinate through private markets, especially for international terrorism victims and underserved crime victims who lack alternative resources.

This regulation implements the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act, establishing procedures for filing and processing claims for death, disability, and educational assistance benefits. It covers definitions of covered officers and injury types, time limits, filing and notice rules, and eligibility restrictions to prevent duplicate benefits.

The program represents a federal welfare overreach that should be handled by private insurers or local governments. It creates moral hazard, crowds out market-based risk pricing, incurs administrative bloat, and erodes state and local responsibility for their employees' compensation and safety.

This regulation, rooted in the 1937 Reindeer Act, restricts ownership and transfer of Alaskan reindeer exclusively to Alaska Natives and Native organizations, while imposing strict controls on non-Natives, including permit requirements, breeding restrictions, and mandatory slaughter/export of any reindeer acquired by non-Natives. It mandates reporting, earmarking of imported reindeer, and government oversight of inheritance and transfers.

This regulation enforces racial discrimination in property rights under the guise of cultural preservation, violating equal protection principles and free market norms. It creates artificial scarcity, stifles economic opportunity for non-Natives, and imposes costly compliance burdens with no justifiable public benefit. The original intent of protecting Native livelihoods is obsolete in modern Alaska, where reindeer husbandry is a minor activity best governed by state law and voluntary association, not federal racial quotas. The regulation is a relic of paternalistic Indian policy and imposes unseen costs by locking capital out of a legitimate agricultural sector.