Browse regulations

Regulations implementing Title V of Public Law 105-383, granting the Secretary authority to waive coastwise trade laws for foreign-built vessels carrying up to 12 passengers for hire, with application procedures, criteria for approval, and revocation processes.

This regulation creates artificial barriers to entry in passenger vessel services, protecting incumbent operators and domestic shipyards from foreign competition. The compliance costs and bureaucratic review process burden small operators, while the protectionist intent distorts market pricing and reduces consumer choice in coastal transportation services.

This regulation establishes merchant mariner licensing requirements, including age, medical, sea service, training, exams, and English proficiency, to ensure competency and compliance with the international STCW Convention for U.S. vessel crews.

Deletion would cause maritime disasters (loss of life, environmental damage), violate treaty obligations, and trigger insurance market collapse. Credentialing is essential where information asymmetry and catastrophic externalities prevent market-based solutions.

Regulation establishes qualifications and standards for seafarers' officer endorsements, aligning with the STCW Convention and other maritime safety laws.

The regulation ensures seafarers meet international safety standards, which is critical for maritime safety and compliance with the STCW Convention. Removing it could lead to unqualified seafarers, posing risks to safety and international compliance.

Establishes rules for suspending or terminating assistance to National Senior Service Corps grant recipients for material non-compliance with grant terms, including procedural safeguards like notice, hearings, and appeal rights.

Creates a complex federal bureaucracy for managing grant compliance that could be handled more efficiently by contract law and market mechanisms. The extensive procedural requirements add regulatory overhead without clear benefits, and federal involvement in senior service programs represents mission creep beyond constitutional limits.

Regulation implements section 455(f) of the Social Security Act, authorizing federal grants to Indian Tribes/Tribal organizations for child support enforcement (IV-D) programs. It sets eligibility criteria (minimum 100 children or waiver), requires detailed Tribal IV-D plans covering administration, procedures, laws, safeguarding, and records, establishes application and approval processes by HHS Secretary, and outlines funding mechanisms including start-up costs up to $500,000 and annual budgets. Extensive reporting and compliance requirements are imposed.

Excessive federal control and compliance costs undermine tribal sovereignty and impose disproportionate burdens on small tribal governments. The 100-child minimum discriminates against smaller tribes, while the Secretary's expansive discretion creates regulatory capture risk. Federal funding distorts tribal priorities and creates dependency, violating principles of limited government and self-determination. The regulatory maze is costly to navigate and ill-suited to diverse tribal customs, ultimately weakening tribal self-governance rather than supporting families.

Regulation prescribes procedures for HHS employees to claim compensation for damage or loss of personal property incident to federal employment under the MPCE Act. It defines eligibility, filing requirements (form, documentation, deadlines), allowable and excluded claims, award calculations with depreciation, carrier/insurance coordination, and appeal processes.

Deleting it would strip HHS of a standardized, administratively feasible system to resolve legitimate employee property damage claims, forcing workers into costly litigation and inviting arbitrary, inconsistent determinations. The regulation provides predictable, equitable outcomes while protecting taxpayers through clear eligibility rules, documentation requirements, depreciation limits, and an appeals mechanism—objectives difficult to achieve without codified procedures.

This regulation outlines procedures for the Department of the Interior to disburse Federal payments in lieu of taxes to local governments for entitlement lands within their boundaries

The costs of maintaining and administering this regulation, including the complexity of calculating payments and the potential for errors, likely outweigh any benefits, and the payments may distort local government incentives and create dependencies on Federal funding

Regulation establishes procedures for adding classes of DOE and atomic weapons facility employees to the Special Exposure Cohort, making them eligible for compensation for specified cancers without individual proof of causation. Details petition requirements, NIOSH evaluation standards (focusing on radiation dose reconstruction feasibility), Advisory Board review, and HHS final determination process.

Costly federal entitlement outside constitutional authority; workers' compensation belongs to states or private markets. Billions in taxpayer funding, massive bureaucratic overhead (NIOSH, Board, HHS, DOL), perverse incentives for claims, and presumptive causation distort economic decisions. Unseen costs: higher taxes, federal overreach eroding federalism, regulatory capture risks, and reduced labor market flexibility.

Establishes peer review procedures and conflict-of-interest rules for NIH grant and contract awards for biomedical and behavioral research, requiring external expert review to assess scientific merit.

This regulation safeguards the integrity of federal research funding by ensuring awards are based on scientific merit rather than political connections or financial conflicts. The administrative burden is minimal compared to the $40+ billion in NIH grants awarded annually, and elimination would invite cronyism, waste taxpayer funds, and degrade the quality of biomedical research that drives medical breakthroughs.

Regulation outlines procedures for handling tort claims against the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), including claim submission requirements, evidence standards, time limits, and involvement of the Department of Justice in certain cases.

This regulation imposes excessive administrative burdens on claimants and CSB, exacerbates regulatory capture through DOJ consultations, and violates federalism by expanding federal oversight of matters properly governed by states. Its complexity and costs undermine liberty and free enterprise principles.

Federal emission standards for compression-ignition nonroad engines, establishing testing requirements, emission limits, and certification procedures to reduce air pollution from equipment like tractors, generators, and construction machinery.

These regulations impose massive compliance costs on manufacturers and equipment operators while creating barriers to entry that protect large incumbents. The complex testing requirements and certification processes distort market competition, increase equipment costs by thousands of dollars per unit, and effectively raise prices on essential machinery used in agriculture, construction, and power generation. The unseen costs include reduced equipment availability, delayed innovation in engine technology, and disproportionate burden on small businesses that cannot absorb compliance costs as easily as large corporations.

EPA regulation (40 CFR Part 451) requiring permits, extensive reporting, and best management practices for facilities producing 100,000+ pounds of aquatic animals annually to control pollutant discharges from flow-through, recirculating, net pen, and cage systems.

This federal mandate duplicates state water quality laws, imposes disproportionate compliance costs on small aquaculture businesses (30% higher per employee than large firms), distorts market competition in favor of incumbents, and contributes to the $2 trillion annual regulatory burden that acts as a hidden tax—all while water pollution can be more efficiently addressed through property rights, tort liability, and state-level regulation.

EPA regulation setting effluent limitations and performance standards for meat and poultry processing wastewater discharges, establishing BOD5, TSS, ammonia, fecal coliform, and oil/grease limits for different facility types based on size and processing complexity

Federal micromanagement of wastewater treatment imposes $2+ billion annual compliance costs on an industry that can self-regulate through tort liability and market incentives, while creating regulatory capture that protects large processors from smaller competitors and distorts water treatment technology development

Implements Rehabilitation Act Sections 504 and 508 for USPS: prohibits disability discrimination in programs/activities, requires accessible electronic and information technology absent undue burden, and establishes complaint procedures.

Deletion would permit discrimination against disabled Americans in accessing essential postal services, with no viable alternative provider in many areas. The regulation enforces equal access while containing costs via the 'undue burden' limitation and provides enforceable accountability through complaint procedures that would otherwise be absent.

This regulation governs the issuance and management of internal policy directives and procedures by U.S. Postal Service headquarters, requiring coordination and review by Public Affairs and Communications before dissemination to area officials.

This is an internal administrative protocol with no public-facing purpose; it imposes no burdens on citizens or businesses, but also confers no tangible benefit to the public. Its existence serves bureaucratic inertia, not liberty or market function. Deleting it reduces red tape without any societal cost.