Browse regulations

This regulation establishes the complex pay system for General Schedule (GS) federal employees, including GS rates, locality adjustments, special rates for law enforcement, promotion rules, and mechanisms for setting pay above minimums based on 'superior qualifications' or 'special needs.' It governs every aspect of federal employee compensation with intricate sequencing rules and definitions.

This internal pay system lacks market discipline, allows arbitrary above-minimum pay through 'superior qualifications' loopholes, and distorts labor markets by making federal employment artificially attractive. The immense complexity hides true costs from public scrutiny while incentivizing agencies to expand high-grade positions. Federal compensation should be tied to private-sector equivalents via transparent formulas, not bureaucratic discretion.

Regulates temporary detail of IT professionals between federal agencies and private sector organizations to enhance IT workforce skills, with requirements for small business participation and reporting.

Regulatory burden creates administrative costs and potential for regulatory capture. The program's benefits (workforce development) are achievable through market-driven solutions, and the 20% small business requirement is an unnecessary federal mandate that distorts free enterprise.

Regulation allows temporary employment of relatives during emergencies to meet urgent needs, with a 30-day limit and possible extension for national emergencies.

The regulation creates a potential loophole for regulatory capture, allowing agencies to exploit emergency exceptions for non-emergency purposes. Its temporary nature (30-day limit) is insufficient to prevent abuse, and its existence adds unnecessary complexity to an already contentious issue of relative employment restrictions. The original intent to address emergencies is better served by existing emergency provisions, making this regulation obsolete and prone to misuse.

A federal regulation implementing veterans recruitment appointments that allows agencies to hire qualified covered veterans without competitive examination, covering disabled veterans, wartime veterans, medal recipients, and recently separated veterans up to GS-11 level with 2-year conversion to career status.

Creates a government-mandated hiring preference that distorts labor markets, imposes costs on taxpayers, and violates equal treatment principles by giving special privileges to veterans over equally qualified non-veterans. The unseen costs include reduced merit-based hiring, increased administrative burden, and potential resentment from non-veterans who face higher barriers to federal employment.

The regulation governs the handling of Sensitive Security Information (SSI) within the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Coast Guard, defining what constitutes SSI, who must safeguard it, and how it can be disclosed.

The regulation creates a complex web of restrictions and requirements that are likely to be overly burdensome and costly. It also risks stifling innovation and transparency, as it limits the disclosure of information that could be crucial for public safety and accountability. The regulation's broad definition of SSI and the extensive list of covered persons and entities may lead to unnecessary secrecy and hinder effective communication and collaboration. Additionally, the regulation's provisions for marking, disposing of, and disclosing SSI are likely to impose significant administrative and financial burdens on covered entities, further complicating an already complex regulatory landscape.

This regulation exempts 11 TSA systems of records from key Privacy Act requirements, including access, accounting for disclosures, relevancy standards, and publication requirements. Systems include security enforcement records, employment investigations, intelligence files, and passenger watch list matching. Exemptions are justified on grounds of protecting investigations, national security, and sensitive security information.

This regulation imposes severe costs on liberty and the rule of law by allowing TSA to operate outside normal transparency constraints. It enables the agency to collect and retain personal data without accuracy requirements, prevents individuals from accessing their own records or knowing when information is shared, and eliminates accountability. These exemptions concentrate unchecked power in an unaccountable agency, creating grave potential for abuse while shielding government activities from public scrutiny—directly contradicting the Privacy Act's fundamental purpose and the constitutional principle that government must operate under known, published rules.

Establishes reporting requirements for vehicle manufacturers to demonstrate compliance with various Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) including air bags, seat belts, child restraints, fuel systems, tires, tire pressure monitoring, and side impact protection. Manufacturers must submit annual reports documenting vehicle counts meeting safety standards and maintain VIN records for several years.

These regulations impose massive paperwork burdens on manufacturers without improving safety outcomes. The reporting requirements create a multi-million dollar compliance industry while providing no measurable benefit to consumers. NHTSA already has testing and certification mechanisms - these reports merely duplicate existing safety verification processes while adding significant administrative costs that get passed to consumers.

This regulation defines terms and sets rules for how corporate changes (predecessor/successor, control relationships) affect obligations under federal fuel economy programs. It assigns liability for penalties, governs credit transfers with time restrictions, establishes joint and several liability within control groups, and mandates reporting of control-transfer contracts and joint agreements to NHTSA/EPA.

The regulation imposes costly reporting requirements, joint and several liability, and credit restrictions that distort corporate decision-making and increase compliance burdens, especially for smaller manufacturers. It expands federal oversight into corporate governance, interfering with market-driven reorganizations and violating principles of limited government and free enterprise.

Regulation establishes training requirements for operators of longer combination vehicles (LCVs), including minimum training standards for drivers and instructors, certification processes, and compliance procedures.

This regulation imposes excessive compliance costs ($2 trillion/year), represents an overreach of federal authority (Tenth Amendment), and burdens small businesses disproportionately. Its complexity (185k pages) undermines rule of law and creates bureaucratic inefficiencies beyond necessary safety measures.

Federal regulation governing the maintenance, safeguarding, and disclosure of Sensitive Security Information (SSI) related to transportation security, including airports, maritime facilities, and aviation systems.

This regulation creates excessive secrecy around transportation security information, preventing public oversight of potentially flawed or unnecessary security measures. The costs include reduced accountability, inability to assess effectiveness of security protocols, and protection of bureaucratic interests rather than public safety. The stated benefits of preventing 'unwarranted invasion of privacy' and protecting 'trade secrets' are outweighed by the unseen costs of reduced transparency and potential abuse of security theater that wastes billions without improving actual safety.

This regulation designates the Procurement Executive as the agency head for purposes of FAR 30.201-5(a) and (b), which deals with contract disputes and claims procedures under the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

This is a mere administrative designation that creates unnecessary bureaucracy without substantive benefit. The Procurement Executive already has clear authority in procurement matters, and this redundant designation adds compliance costs and complexity without improving outcomes or protecting Americans from any harm.

This regulation establishes Department of State procurement procedures including contract file management, numbering systems, review requirements, closeout processes, and quality assurance for both domestic and overseas contracting activities.

Creates bureaucratic overhead without public benefit - internal agency procedures for contract administration, numbering, and file management add compliance costs while serving only to expand federal workforce and paperwork requirements. The $2 trillion annual regulatory compliance burden includes such agency-specific administrative rules that protect bureaucratic turf rather than serve citizens.

FCC regulation requiring communications providers to report network outages meeting specific thresholds (user-minutes, special facilities impacts) within 120 minutes, with follow-up reports and direct notifications to 911/988 facilities.

Heavy compliance costs, federal surveillance of private networks, and preemption of state authority outweigh any marginal public safety benefits from centralized reporting.

Regulates agreements among ocean common carriers and marine terminal operators to prevent anti-competitive behavior, requiring review for rate-fixing, pooling, and service contracts while exempting certain operational agreements like husbanding, agency, and equipment interchange.

Imposes significant compliance costs on shipping companies ($14K+ per household annually), creates bureaucratic delays in agreement processing, and represents federal overreach into commercial maritime arrangements that could be handled through private contract law and antitrust enforcement rather than preemptive regulatory approval.

This regulation creates an exemption from the Shipping Act for Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier Service Arrangements (NSAs). It defines eligible parties, requires NVOCCs to provide public electronic access to rules tariffs and to include specific contract terms (origin/destination, commodities, minimum volume, rates, duration, etc.). It imposes anti-discrimination provisions and mandates five-year record retention with Commission audit access.

Deletion would eliminate the NSA exemption, forcing NVOCCs and shippers into less efficient, rigid standard tariff regimes that raise transportation costs and reduce contracting flexibility. The regulation's light-touch framework achieves its goal by providing legal certainty and minimal transparency, enabling customized service agreements that benefit American businesses and consumers—a balance unlikely to emerge from pure private ordering due to information asymmetries and holdout problems in a highly regulated industry.