Browse regulations

This regulation establishes Medicare payment rules for physician services, detailing methodologies (prospective payment system vs. reasonable cost), compensation limits, allocation requirements, and special provisions for teaching hospitals, residents, radiology, pathology, and split/shared visits.

Imposes crushing compliance costs (trillions annually), distorts incentives toward hospital employment, caps physician compensation causing recruitment shortages, centralizes price controls, and entrenches regulatory capture—violating rule of law, federalism, and free enterprise. Market mechanisms or state flexibility would achieve Medicare's aims with far less economic damage.

Regulation governs Medicare coverage of medical devices in clinical studies, categorizing devices as experimental (Category A) or nonexperimental (Category B) and setting criteria for coverage of routine care items and services during investigational device studies.

The regulation creates significant compliance costs (over $2 trillion annually) and enables regulatory capture through the revolving door between agencies and industries. It disproportionately burdens small businesses and distorts market incentives, violating the principle of limited government. The 185,000-page code of federal regulations represents a direct assault on the rule of law, and the system's complexity creates unnecessary burdens on both patients and providers.

Regulates approval process for respirators used in hazardous atmospheres, establishing testing, certification, and quality control requirements for manufacturers

Prevents workplace deaths from toxic gas exposure and suffocation; market alone cannot solve asymmetric information problems in life-or-death safety equipment where consumers cannot verify quality

Regulation establishes administrative framework for NIH research traineeships, defining eligibility, application requirements, stipend levels, training conditions, and termination procedures for individuals receiving federal funding for biomedical/behavioral research training.

Federal traineeships crowd out private funding sources, distort research training market through subsidies, create dependency on Washington-approved programs, and impose uniform bureaucratic standards that cannot account for dispersed knowledge of local training needs; the hidden tax burden funding these programs reduces household disposable income that could otherwise be invested in voluntary education or entrepreneurship.

Regulation extends Federal Tort Claims Act coverage to certain health entities and individuals receiving federal grants, ensuring liability protection for medical, surgical, dental, or related functions performed under specified programs.

This regulation imposes unnecessary costs and administrative burdens on health providers, particularly small and nonprofit entities. It creates a barrier to entry for new providers and distorts incentives by shielding providers from liability, potentially reducing the quality of care. The federal government should not be in the business of protecting health providers from liability claims, as this undermines the principle of accountability and the rule of law. Additionally, the regulation encroaches on state and local jurisdictions, which are better suited to manage healthcare liability issues.

Establishes universal waste management standards for batteries, pesticides, mercury-containing equipment, lamps, and aerosol cans, providing streamlined handling requirements for small quantity handlers to facilitate proper disposal and recycling while preventing environmental releases.

Creates unnecessary regulatory burden on small businesses with complex labeling, storage, and handling requirements that could be handled through market-based recycling programs and tort law. The compliance costs and administrative overhead exceed any environmental benefits, as private industry has strong incentives to properly handle hazardous materials without federal micromanagement.

This regulation mandates federal agencies to procure items made from recovered materials, aiming to reduce waste and promote recycling. It applies to purchases exceeding $10,000 annually and covers a wide range of products from insulation to office furniture.

The regulation imposes unnecessary compliance costs on federal agencies and contractors, distorting market incentives and potentially increasing prices for consumers. It also encourages regulatory capture by favoring industries that produce recycled materials, limiting competition and innovation. Additionally, it federalizes decisions that should be made at the state or local level, eroding constitutional federalism.

Federal regulation establishing water quality standards for the Great Lakes System, including numeric criteria for aquatic life protection, human health standards, and implementation procedures for states and tribes

Federal overreach that preempts state/local control, imposes massive compliance costs, and replaces local knowledge with centralized one-size-fits-all standards. Water quality is properly a state and regional matter under the Tenth Amendment.

This regulation establishes NOX emission limits for coal-fired utility units under the Acid Rain Program, setting specific emission rates (in lb/mmBtu) based on boiler type and phase (Phase I or Phase II), with different standards for tangentially fired, wall-fired, cell burner, cyclone, wet bottom, and vertically fired boilers, along with compliance options including low NOX burners, alternative technologies, emissions averaging, and demonstration periods for units unable to meet standard limits.

This regulation imposes massive compliance costs on coal-fired utilities through complex NOX emission limits and technology requirements, creating a regulatory labyrinth that distorts energy markets, raises electricity costs for consumers, and protects incumbent utilities from competition while achieving marginal environmental benefits that could be obtained through market-based solutions.

Establishes opt-in program allowing combustion/process sources to voluntarily join Acid Rain Program, requiring permits, monitoring, allowance allocation, and compliance with SO2 emissions limits under Clean Air Act Title IV

Creates costly bureaucratic framework for voluntary emissions trading that distorts market incentives, imposes compliance burdens on small businesses, and represents federal overreach into state/local environmental regulation

This VA regulation establishes rules for the Department's official seal and distinguishing flag (including authorized and unauthorized uses), eligibility and disposition of burial flags for veterans, housing for overseas employees, program evaluation procedures, standards for evaluating radiation health studies, presumptions of service connection for prisoners of war, employee reporting of criminal violations, and conduct on VA property.

Deletion would harm veterans by eliminating burial flags, reduce agency accountability by ending program evaluations, compromise safety on VA facilities by removing conduct rules, and enable misuse of government seals. The regulation provides clear, uniform standards that are administratively efficient and would be difficult to replace with alternative mechanisms that would be more arbitrary and prone to abuse.

This regulation defines 'assassination records' related to JFK's assassination, mandates their collection from all government levels and private entities, establishes the JFK Assassination Records Collection, and sets rules for preservation, access, and disclosure—overseeing a vast, permanently active federal record-keeping system with broad jurisdictional reach.

The regulation institutionalizes a permanent, costly, and invasive federal bureaucracy to catalog and manage historical records that serve no ongoing public safety or governmental function; it imposes compliance burdens on state/local agencies and private entities, infringes on privacy and property rights without constitutional basis, and continues after its original purpose—transparency about a 60-year-old event—has long been fulfilled, with no measurable public benefit justifying its ongoing administrative cost and scope.

Sets standards for preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction of historic properties receiving federal grants or tax incentives through the National Historic Preservation Fund.

Imposes compliance costs, distorts property markets by favoring historic preservation over productive use, and represents federal overreach into local matters better handled by states and private actors.

The Upward Bound Program provides federal grants to institutions, agencies, and schools to deliver comprehensive support services—including tutoring, college preparation, and financial aid guidance—to low-income, potential first-generation college students, at-risk youth, and veterans, with the goal of increasing secondary school completion and postsecondary enrollment and success.

This program exemplifies federal overreach into education, a power reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment. Its elaborate eligibility rules, service mandates, and compliance requirements impose massive hidden administrative costs (burdening grantees and taxpayers), distort incentives by centralizing educational support, and crowd out more efficient private, local, and charitable solutions that would be more responsive to actual community needs without bureaucratic middlemen.

This regulation implements the Impact Aid program under Title VIII of the ESEA, providing federal payments to local educational agencies (LEAs) that educate children connected to federal activities (military, federal employees) or have federal property within their boundaries that reduces their local tax base. It defines eligibility criteria, application procedures, calculation methodologies, overpayment recovery, and forgiveness provisions for funding that compensates districts for lost revenue and additional costs.

This program represents unconstitutional federal overreach into education—a power reserved to states and localities under the 10th Amendment. It creates dependency on federal dollars, imposes massive compliance burdens with complex eligibility formulas and reporting requirements, and distorts local decision-making. The hidden tax burden exceeds $14,000 per household annually. States could address these issues themselves through direct PILOT payments or adjusted school funding formulas without Washington bureaucracy. The regulatory complexity (forgiveness provisions, imputed tax rates, boundary change rules) serves mainly to expand agency power and create opportunities for regulatory capture.