Browse regulations

This regulation establishes administrative procedures for collecting debts owed to the United States government, including provisions for written demands, administrative offset, salary offset, installment payment agreements, dispute resolution processes, interest and penalty assessments, and contracting for collection services. It applies to all federal agencies collecting claims for money or property owed to the US government, except for tax claims, antitrust violations, inter-agency claims, and fraudulent cases.

Deleting this regulation would severely undermine the government's ability to collect legitimate debts, resulting in significant financial losses to taxpayers and破坏ingessential governmentoperations. While the administrative burden exists, the regulation provides necessaryDue process protections for debtors throughreviewproceduresand limits on collectionmethods, balancing governmental efficiency with individualrights.The core functionof ensuringgovernmentcreditors can enforce legitimate claimsagainst debtors is fundamental to maintaining fiscalresponsibility andruleof law, making thisregulation essentialdespiteits bureaucraticoverhead.

This regulation establishes privacy procedures for the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation, implementing the Privacy Act of 1974 to govern access, disclosure, amendment, and appeals of personal records, with specific provisions for medical records and exemptions for law enforcement materials.

Americans would be worse off if deleted because this provides essential privacy protections for individuals' personal records, including access rights, amendment procedures, and safeguards against unauthorized disclosure, which are fundamental to individual liberty and limited government principles.

Establishes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures for the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation, defining exemptions for records disclosure, appeal processes, fee structures, and commercial use provisions.

Americans would be worse off without transparent government operations. This regulation ensures public access to federal records while protecting legitimate privacy, security, and commercial interests - balancing accountability with necessary confidentiality.

This regulation mandates detailed financial reporting and disclosure requirements for the Farm Credit System (FCS), including quarterly and annual reports with combined financial statements, risk assessments, governance certifications, and internal control evaluations. It establishes a System Audit Committee and Compensation Committee with specific composition, independence, and resource requirements. The reporting must include extensive information about loan portfolios, funding sources, capital structure, legal proceedings, and management's discussion of financial condition.

The regulation imposes significant compliance costs on a government-sponsored enterprise that could achieve these transparency objectives voluntarily through market discipline. Private investors and bondholders would demand equivalent disclosure, audits, and governance standards regardless of mandate. The requirements create barriers to entry, protect the FCS from competition, and represent classic regulatory overreach into what should be private contractual relationships between lenders and capital providers. The detailed formatting, timing, and content specifications prevent innovation in reporting and add hidden costs ultimately borne by farmers and rural borrowers who rely on FCS credit.

Comprehensive ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations for Farm Credit System institutions, establishing standards of conduct, reporting requirements, and oversight mechanisms for directors and employees.

These regulations protect taxpayer-backed institutions from corruption and self-dealing, ensuring public trust in the Farm Credit System's mission to support American agriculture. Without these safeguards, billions in federal credit could be misused for personal gain.

This regulation establishes procedures for the Farm Credit Administration to collect debts owed to the United States, including administrative offsets, salary offsets, compromise, suspension/termination of collection actions, and referral for litigation. It includes due process protections such as written notice, right to inspect records, right to review, hearing rights, and consideration of financial hardship.

Deletion would risk arbitrary and oppressive debt collection practices, undermining due process and fairness. The regulation ensures that government debt collection is conducted with transparency, procedural safeguards, and consideration of debtor hardship—protections that would be difficult to maintain without codified rules. Americans would be worse off if the government could seize money or report debts without standardized procedures and oversight.

Regulates acceptance of payment by Eximbank from non-Federal sources for employee travel expenses related to official duties

The costs of maintaining and enforcing such regulations may outweigh any potential benefits, leading to unintended consequences such as bureaucratic inefficiency and potential corruption

Regulation EE expands the definition of 'financial institution' under the FDIC Improvement Act to allow more financial market participants to access netting provisions for financial contracts. It sets quantitative thresholds ($1B notional or $100M mark-to-market with non-affiliates) and auto-qualifies certain entities like swap dealers, clearing organizations, and FSOC-designated firms. Netting allows parties to offset mutual obligations, reducing settlement risk and capital requirements.

Netting is fundamental to modern financial market functioning—without legally enforceable netting, markets would require gross settlement, dramatically increasing systemic risk, collateral demands, and operational costs. This regulation expands access to netting in a rules-based, objective manner (quantitative thresholds plus defined entity categories), reducing moral hazard and regulatory discretion while promoting efficiency. Deleting it would force market participants to operate under worse legal frameworks, increasing systemic fragility and costs for all Americans through higher financial intermediation costs.

Regulation O restricts extensions of credit by Federal Reserve member banks to their executive officers, directors, and principal shareholders (insiders), as well as to companies controlled by such persons. It requires that insider loans be made on substantially the same terms as those offered to the general public, imposes prior board approval for loans exceeding $25,000 or 5% of unimpaired capital and surplus, and limits aggregate insider lending to 100% of unimpaired capital and surplus (unless a small bank qualifies for a higher limit). It also requires recordkeeping and annual surveys to identify all insiders.

Insider lending creates severe conflicts of interest and increases risk of bank failure, potentially harming depositors and taxpayers. While the regulation imposes compliance costs, it is narrowly tailored to prevent self-dealing that could otherwise go unchecked even by market forces, as insider loans may be obscured from shareholders and depositors. Federal Reserve member banks enjoy unique privileges (discount window access, payment system access) that justify this minimal governance requirement. Without it, the moral hazard created by deposit insurance and Too-Big-to-Fail would be amplified.

OCC securities registration rules for national banks and federal savings associations, incorporating SEC standards with various exemptions for private and small offerings

Deletion would eliminate investor protection oversight for bank capital raising, creating regulatory gaps that could endanger both investors and financial stability. The rule integrates well-established SEC frameworks while allowing OCC to maintain safety and soundness supervision of uniquely regulated institutions.

This regulation implements the National Voter Registration Act by establishing a standardized national mail voter registration form, defining its required contents and technical specifications, mandating that states accept and use the form, and requiring chief state election officials to certify state-specific requirements and submit biennial reports on voter registration data to the Election Assistance Commission.

This regulation imposes unconstitutional federal overreach into state election administration, violating Tenth Amendment federalism. The unseen costs include erosion of state sovereignty, centralization of election procedures, and a reporting burden that diverts state resources. Even if intended to facilitate registration, it crowds out state innovation and local control, replacing diverse tailored solutions with a one-size-fits-all federal mandate that distorts the constitutional balance of power.

Regulation provides guidelines for the public financing of presidential nominating conventions, including eligibility requirements, payment amounts, and permissible uses of funds.

The regulation imposes significant administrative burdens and costs on political parties, and its restrictions on expenditures may limit the ability of parties to effectively conduct their conventions, potentially stifling political speech and participation.

Requires convention committees, host committees, and municipal funds to register and report campaign finance information for political party conventions, including details on contributions and expenditures.

Imposes compliance costs on political party convention activities without clear evidence of preventing corruption or enhancing transparency. Creates bureaucratic burden that disproportionately affects smaller parties and local organizing efforts, while political parties already have strong incentives for self-regulation and public disclosure.

This regulation imposes annual financial assessments on U.S. domestic utilities that purchased separative work units (SWUs) from the DOE between 1945 and 1992, to fund uranium enrichment decontamination and decommissioning costs. Assessments are calculated based on historical SWU purchases, adjusted for inflation using CPI-U, and enforced through invoicing, appeals, and interest on late payments.

The uranium enrichment program ended decades ago; the fund's original purpose is obsolete. The regulation imposes ongoing compliance costs on utilities for liabilities they did not create, distorting energy markets and penalizing current operators for historical government actions. No compelling public interest justifies continued administrative burden.

Establishes Department of Energy procedures for reimbursing licensees of active uranium or thorium processing sites for remediation costs attributable to byproduct material from sales to the US government. Caps reimbursement at $6.25 per federal-related dry short ton (inflation-adjusted), with aggregate limits of $350M for uranium sites and $365M for thorium site, from a total $715M fund. Requires documentation, audits, and appeals processes.

This is a corporate subsidy forcing taxpayers to bear cleanup costs that should be internalized by the processing companies that generated the waste for profit. The program creates moral hazard, distorts market incentives, and adds purely bureaucratic overhead without advancing any legitimate health/safety regulatory objective. The unseen cost is the diverted resources and the precedent of socializing private environmental liabilities.