Browse regulations

This regulation establishes procedures for mandatory declassification review requests under Executive Order 12958, allowing public members to request review of classified information. It outlines request processes, timelines, appeal rights, and coordination between agencies for declassification decisions.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it provides the only formal mechanism for citizens to challenge unnecessary government secrecy and access historical information that may no longer require classification. Without this process, government agencies could indefinitely maintain secrecy over documents that should be public, undermining transparency and accountability while preventing researchers, journalists, and citizens from understanding government actions and history.

This regulation establishes procedures for authorized government officials to challenge the classification status of national security information. It outlines processes for submitting challenges, review timelines, required documentation, and appeal rights through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP).

This regulation creates unnecessary bureaucratic overhead for classification challenges, adding compliance costs and complexity to federal operations. The existing mandatory declassification review provisions under E.O. 12958 already provide adequate mechanisms for information review. The specialized process for 'authorized holders' duplicates existing FOIA/Privacy Act procedures while creating a parallel system that serves no public benefit and only increases administrative burden on intelligence agencies.

This regulation establishes procedures for individuals to access, amend, or appeal records held by the National Counterintelligence Center (NACIC) under the Privacy Act of 1974, including exemptions for classified intelligence information and criminal penalties for unauthorized disclosure.

This regulation creates a bureaucratic framework for accessing classified intelligence records while providing criminal penalties for unauthorized disclosure. The costs include chilling effects on legitimate oversight, administrative burden on intelligence agencies, and potential misuse of exemptions to conceal government wrongdoing. The regulation's complexity and exemptions undermine transparency and accountability, with the unseen cost being reduced public trust in intelligence operations.

FOIA implementation for NACIC detailing request procedures, fee structures, and exemptions for classified information, commercial confidentiality, and personal privacy.

Deletion would create legal uncertainty, leading to either excessive secrecy or improper disclosure of sensitive information. This regulation provides necessary procedural clarity while balancing transparency with legitimate national security needs. Without clear implementing rules, NACIC would lack authority to process requests consistently, undermining both government accountability and constitutional protections.

This regulation implements WMD proliferation sanctions under IEEPA, prohibiting U.S. persons from importing goods, technology, or services from designated foreign persons involved in weapons of mass destruction activities. It extends to financing, brokering, and transit transactions, with specific exemptions for personal communications, informational materials, travel, humanitarian aid, certain official business, and agricultural/medical items for personal use. Penalties include civil fines up to $377,700 or twice transaction value, and criminal penalties up to $1M/20 years imprisonment.

Americans would be worse off without this regulation because it prevents U.S. commerce from funding and enabling entities engaged in WMD proliferation, an existential national security threat. The targeted sanctions achieve a critical foreign policy objective that cannot be accomplished through market forces alone, while exemptions preserve humanitarian trade, information flow, and diplomatic activities. The compliance burden is narrowly confined to those directly dealing with designated proliferators and is justified by the catastrophic risks of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.

Regulates Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions for US securities and electronic fund transfers, establishing procedures for credit/debit entries, prenotifications, error handling, liability, and electronic signatures between Treasury, financial institutions, and investors.

Creates unnecessary federal bureaucracy over payment processing that could be handled through private sector agreements. The regulations impose compliance costs without clear benefits beyond what market forces and existing contract law would provide. Federal involvement in ACH transactions represents regulatory overreach into financial infrastructure that should be governed by voluntary market standards.

This regulation governs the process by which federal agencies accept U.S. government debt securities (Treasury obligations) as collateral in lieu of traditional surety bonds. It defines key terms, sets procedures for pledging, transferring, and safeguarding the securities, outlines the bond official's duties, and addresses interest payments and default scenarios.

This rule provides a low-cost alternative to expensive surety bonds, reducing compliance costs for businesses and individuals dealing with the federal government. It implements clear statutory authority (31 U.S.C. 9301-9303) with minimal administrative burden. Deleting it would eliminate this flexibility, increasing costs without any compensating benefit, while offering no justification under the stated principles of limited government.

Regulation governing federal ACH payments and benefit payment reclamation from financial institutions after death or incapacity of recipients.

Creates unnecessary regulatory burden on financial institutions that gets passed to consumers, establishes asymmetric government liability regime for benefit payment reclamation, and represents regulatory capture favoring federal interests over market solutions.

This regulation establishes rules for designating First Assistants to temporarily perform duties of PAS Offices within the Treasury Department when the principal office is vacant. It specifies that principal deputies become First Assistants, or the Secretary may designate others, with specific exceptions for IRS Oversight Board, Inspector General, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

This regulation creates unnecessary bureaucratic complexity for temporary leadership succession. The temporary performance of duties when offices are vacant is a routine administrative matter that doesn't require federal regulation. Market principles of organizational efficiency would handle this better through internal Treasury Department policies, and the specific exceptions add arbitrary complexity without clear public benefit.

Establishes administrative appeal procedures for orders issued by the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) or delegated States regarding royalty reporting and payment obligations under federal and Indian mineral leases. Provides timelines (30-60 days), filing requirements, joinder rules, and escalation path to Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA).

Eliminating this regulation would strip lessees, designees, and Indian tribes of their right to administrative review of ONRR orders, forcing immediate judicial challenge without exhausting agency remedies. The appeal process is a critical due process safeguard that prevents arbitrary enforcement, corrects errors, and maintains fairness in a highly complex regulatory regime. Removing it would concentrate unchecked power in the agency, increase litigation costs by bypassing cheaper administrative resolution, and violate the rule of law principle that government decisions must be subject to review.

This regulation establishes procedures for suspending compliance with federal mineral lease orders during appeals, requiring lessees to post bonds or demonstrate financial solvency to ensure payment of royalties and other obligations while disputes are resolved.

This creates a costly bureaucratic process that protects federal revenue collection at the expense of property rights and due process. The bonding requirements and financial solvency demonstrations impose significant compliance costs on businesses, particularly small operators, while the underlying principle of forcing payment guarantees before appeal undermines the presumption of innocence and creates a system where the government can effectively seize property through administrative procedures without judicial review.

Federal regulation establishing mandatory hearing conservation standards for miners, including noise exposure limits, monitoring requirements, audiometric testing, hearing protection, training, and recordkeeping to prevent occupational hearing loss in metal, nonmetal, and coal mining operations.

This regulation represents federal overreach into occupational safety that should be handled by state-level worker protection laws and industry-specific standards. The $2+ trillion annual regulatory compliance burden includes excessive micromanagement of workplace conditions that businesses and workers can address through market mechanisms and tort law. States have primary authority over workplace safety under federalism principles, and the mining industry already has strong incentives to protect workers from hearing damage to avoid liability and maintain productivity.

Mandatory training requirements for miners and other persons at surface mines, covering new miner training (24 hours), newly hired experienced miner training, task-specific training, annual refresher training (8 hours), and site-specific hazard awareness training, with detailed record-keeping and certification requirements.

Creates $2+ trillion in compliance costs for mining industry, imposes one-size-fits-all federal mandates that override state/local authority, and establishes bureaucratic training requirements that distort labor markets and create barriers to entry for small operators.

This regulation adjusts civil monetary penalties under ERISA for inflation according to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. It updates various penalty amounts (ranging from $10 to $549,095) to maintain their real value and establishes annual automatic inflation adjustments starting in 2017.

While preserving deterrent value of penalties is legitimate, this mechanical inflation-adjustment regime creates unnecessary bureaucratic overhead with no congressional oversight. Automatic annual adjustments bypass the democratic process where penalty levels should be revisited through notice-and-comment rulemaking or legislation. The regulation also adds thousands of pages to the CFR over time tracking these adjustments. Congress should explicitly update penalty amounts periodically rather than delegating this to agency automation.

Regulation establishes the framework for appointing and overseeing Special Counsels within the Department of Justice. It outlines when a Special Counsel may be appointed (conflicts of interest or extraordinary circumstances), the qualifications required, jurisdictional scope, reporting requirements, and oversight mechanisms including Attorney General supervision and Congressional notification.

This procedural framework serves a legitimate and necessary function in maintaining the rule of law and public trust in high-stakes investigations where conflicts of interest exist. The regulation provides essential safeguards: independence from day-to-day supervision, removal only for cause, and congressional transparency. Without this structure, investigations of powerful figures could be perceived as partisan or corrupt, undermining the legitimacy of the justice system itself. The oversight mechanisms prevent abuse while ensuring impartiality when the normal DOJ structure faces conflicts. Though it creates a specialized position, it does not impose direct costs on citizens or businesses and performs a function that would be difficult to replicate through ad hoc arrangements.