Browse regulations

This regulation establishes FOIA procedures for the Peace Corps, defining terms like commercial use, compelling need, and fee structures, and setting out processes for record requests, exemptions, and disclosures.

Federal FOIA procedures should be uniform across agencies rather than agency-specific. This creates regulatory duplication and complexity without adding value, as FOIA is already governed by federal statute and uniform OMB guidance.

Federal regulation requiring drug-free workplace policies for Department of State grant recipients, including employee notification requirements, workplace identification, and penalties for violations including debarment

Creates massive bureaucratic compliance costs for universities, research institutions, and nonprofits without demonstrable public safety benefits; federal government has no constitutional authority to dictate workplace drug policies to private entities receiving grants; regulation exemplifies federal overreach into state/local matters that properly belong to Tenth Amendment jurisdictions

FDA regulation establishing safety and labeling standards for over-the-counter antiperspirant products. It specifies permitted active ingredients (aluminum compounds) with concentration limits, mandates specific labeling language for identity, indications, warnings, and directions, and provides effectiveness testing guidelines.

This represents classic regulatory overreach into a product category with a decades-long safety record. The regulation imposes compliance costs that disproportionately harm small manufacturers, stifles innovation by restricting ingredient experimentation and claim wording, and federalizes what should be state-level consumer protection matters. False advertising and product defects can be adequately addressed through tort law, state regulations, and market forces without a federal command-and-control regime dictating specific phrasing and ingredient lists.

This FDA regulation defines when OTC antidiarrheal drugs containing bismuth subsalicylate or kaolin are considered safe and effective, and prescribes exact labeling requirements including specific indications, warnings, and dosage instructions to prevent misbranding.

This regulation imposes substantial compliance costs, stifles innovation through prior restraint, and paternalistically limits consumer choice and manufacturer communication. The prescriptive labeling requirements create barriers to entry, protect incumbent manufacturers, and prevent the market from developing more effective or tailored solutions through competition and reputation mechanisms. Safety and efficacy claims can be policed through existing fraud and tort law without a federal monopoly on labeling content.

Prohibits use of federal funds for lobbying activities related to federal contracts, grants, loans, and cooperative agreements. Requires certification and disclosure forms for lobbying expenditures, with civil penalties for non-compliance. Includes exemptions for certain professional services and agency liaison activities.

Creates a complex compliance bureaucracy that imposes significant costs on businesses and agencies while producing minimal anti-corruption benefits. The paperwork burden and potential civil penalties create uncertainty and discourage legitimate government contracting. Private sector lobbying should be addressed through market forces and transparency, not federal micromanagement of business-government interactions.

Title VIII provides special benefits to certain World War II veterans who are SSI-eligible and wish to live abroad, administered by Social Security Administration with eligibility requirements including age, veteran status, and residency outside the US.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it ensures basic income support for elderly World War II veterans who served their country and wish to live abroad, preventing them from falling into poverty while residing outside the US.

This regulation defines technical financial metrics (account benefits ratio, average account benefits ratio) and sets procedural requirements for the Railroad Retirement Board to compute and certify these ratios to the Secretary of Treasury on specific timelines. It governs internal financial reporting for the Railroad Retirement Account and related trusts.

This is purely bureaucratic bookkeeping with no public benefit. The computational formulas and certification deadlines serve no compelling government interest that justifies the administrative burden. These internal accounting procedures could be handled through standard financial management practices without regulatory mandate, reducing waste of taxpayer resources.

Delegation order specifying signature and approval requirements for customs revenue regulations between Treasury and Homeland Security, with reporting mandates to congressional committees and emergency security provisions.

Internal procedural rule managing bureaucratic coordination creates unseen overhead without constitutional or public benefit; simpler interagency mechanisms exist, and its removal would reduce regulatory complexity while allowing agencies to coordinate through standard practices or memoranda of understanding.

This regulation implements Section 26a of the TVA Act, requiring federal approval for any dam, structure, or obstruction affecting navigation, flood control, or public lands within the Tennessee River watershed. It establishes a comprehensive permitting process with fees, environmental reviews, and appeal mechanisms, and includes specific restrictions on floating cabins, effectively banning new ones and regulating existing ones.

The regulation imposes a massive compliance burden on property owners and small businesses, violating core property rights under the Tenth Amendment. It creates barriers to entry that protect incumbent water users from competition, while federalizing purely local land-use decisions that rightfully belong to states. The hidden tax of navigating this bureaucracy—application fees, legal costs, delays—far outweighs any marginal benefits, which could be achieved through state-level zoning, common-law nuisance rules, or targeted federal action only where truly interstate navigation is affected. TVA's 'sole discretion' to deny permits for vague reasons like 'adversely affect[ing] sensitive resources' invites regulatory capture and arbitrary power.

Regulation BTR prohibits directors and executive officers from trading company equity securities during blackout periods when they cannot sell to the general public, aiming to prevent insider trading based on non-public information about plan suspensions.

Creates unnecessary compliance costs and restricts legitimate trading by insiders who already face insider trading laws. The rule duplicates existing securities laws while adding bureaucratic overhead that harms capital formation and executive compensation flexibility.

Regulation G mandates that public companies disclosing non-GAAP financial measures must simultaneously present the most comparable GAAP measure and provide a quantitative reconciliation of differences, prohibiting misleading presentations. It includes exemptions for foreign private issuers and certain transactions, and clarifies that compliance does not affect liability under existing anti-fraud provisions.

The rule imposes significant compliance burdens on public companies, chilling the use of non-GAAP metrics that management believes best reflect operational performance. It expands regulatory complexity without addressing a problem not already prohibited by Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5; misleading disclosures are already illegal. The rigid reconciliation requirement distracts from substantive investor protection, invites technical non-compliance lawsuits, and raises costs that are ultimately borne by shareholders and the economy.

Establishes professional conduct standards for attorneys representing issuers before the SEC, requiring reporting of evidence of material violations to issuer's legal officers or qualified legal compliance committees, with escalation procedures if no appropriate response is received.

Creates costly compliance bureaucracy that disproportionately burdens small firms, imposes vague 'material violation' standards that enable regulatory overreach, and establishes a federalized attorney-client reporting regime that undermines traditional legal privilege and state jurisdiction over attorney conduct.

Requires futures commission merchants and introducing brokers to implement customer identification programs under the Bank Secrecy Act to prevent money laundering and financial crime.

Imposes $14,000+ per household in hidden compliance costs, disproportionately crushes small businesses, invades financial privacy without warrant, creates regulatory capture risks, and federalizes a domain properly regulated by states under the Tenth Amendment. The unseen costs—reduced competition, higher barriers to entry, and distorted market incentives—far outweigh any marginal benefits in an already heavily regulated financial sector.

This regulation outlines the petition and review process for modifying or terminating preferential trade treatment under the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) and Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA). It establishes procedures for how individuals or groups can request withdrawal, suspension, or limitation of trade benefits, sets an annual review schedule, and governs public participation and confidentiality of submissions. The process involves the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC), USTR, and ultimately the President.

The underlying ATPA/ATPDEA programs (expired or expired-largely) constitute trade subsidy preferences that distort free markets and violate free trade principles by picking winners and creating dependency. Even as a procedural framework, this regulation adds bureaucratic overhead and costs with no meaningful benefit. The petition process empowers special interest lobbying for protectionist adjustments while doing nothing to advance genuine free trade based on comparative advantage. The $2 trillion regulatory burden includes even such obsolete, low-impact procedural regimes that should be swept away.

The National Construction Safety Team Act establishes investigative teams led by NIST to assess building performance and emergency response procedures after major building failures. The teams conduct technical investigations, collect evidence, issue public reports with recommendations for improving building codes and standards, and coordinate with authorities while avoiding interference with criminal investigations or enforcement.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because building failures cause catastrophic loss of life and economic damage. The Act provides a systematic, evidence-based mechanism to investigate technical causes and translate lessons into improved building codes and practices. Without this coordinated federal authority, investigations would be fragmented, knowledge would be lost, and critical safety improvements would not be developed or disseminated nationwide, leaving future buildings unnecessarily vulnerable to preventable failures.