Browse regulations

Regulation establishes GRASE status, formulation limits, and mandatory labeling for over-the-counter skin protectants including lip balms, astringents, and combination products

Federal micromanagement of low-risk topical products imposes substantial compliance costs on manufacturers, particularly small businesses, while providing no meaningful safety benefit. Trivial products like moisturizers and lip balm pose minimal risk and are better regulated through market mechanisms, tort law, and voluntary standards. The rule creates barriers to entry, stifles innovation, and represents an unconstitutional overreach into personal care decisions that should be left to consumers and producers.

FDA regulation mandates that all solid oral dosage human drugs be imprinted with a code identifying the drug product (active ingredients and strength) and manufacturer, with exemptions for clinical trials, bioequivalence studies, compounded drugs, radiopharmaceuticals, technological infeasibility, and drugs used in controlled settings. Non-compliance can result in the drug being deemed adulterated, misbranded, or unapproved.

The imprinting mandate imposes high compliance costs on manufacturers, especially small businesses, raising barriers to entry and drug prices. It stifles innovation through rigid product design requirements and bureaucratic exemption processes. Private market mechanisms, such as tort liability and industry standards, could more efficiently ensure drug identification and safety without the hidden tax burden of regulatory compliance.

Regulation outlines standards for cacao and chocolate product labeling, including methods for determining shell and fat content, processing with optional ingredients, and labeling requirements for different types of chocolate and cocoa.

The regulation imposes significant compliance costs (part of the $2 trillion annual hidden tax) and creates a complex, unmanageable document (185,000+ pages). It also allows regulatory capture through the revolving door between agencies and industries, and its requirements (e.g., specific labeling for processed ingredients) are unnecessary for consumer protection and can be achieved through market forces.

This regulation governs the Social Security overall minimum guarantee (special guaranty) for railroad retirement benefits, ensuring total family benefits meet a minimum threshold based on what would be paid under Social Security if railroad service were covered by that Act. It details eligibility criteria, computation methods, family maximum adjustments, age reductions, and benefit coordination rules.

This creates a complex bureaucratic system that distorts market incentives and increases compliance costs. The guaranteed minimum benefit, while appearing protective, actually reduces individual responsibility for retirement planning and creates moral hazard. The extensive rules for family coordination, age reductions, and benefit coordination with other programs add unnecessary complexity that primarily benefits those who can navigate the system rather than those in need.

Regulations for centralized examination stations (CES) operated by private entities, outlining application process, responsibilities, and grounds for suspension or revocation

The costs of maintaining and managing CES operations, including the potential for regulatory capture and the burden on small businesses, outweigh any potential benefits, and the regulation may distort incentives and reduce supply

This regulation outlines various clauses that may be incorporated into Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) contracts, covering areas such as affirmative action for veterans and disabled workers, equal opportunity requirements, anti-kickback provisions, Buy American Act compliance, environmental convictions disclosure, age discrimination prohibitions, drug-free workplace requirements, nuclear safety whistleblower protections, nuclear liability indemnification, and prohibitions on gifts to TVA officials.

These regulations impose extensive compliance burdens on contractors with little demonstrable benefit to taxpayers or workers. Most provisions duplicate broader federal requirements while adding administrative overhead. The implicit assumption that private actors cannot voluntarily adopt fair practices without government mandates contradicts the principles of free enterprise and individual liberty. The costs of compliance, particularly for small businesses, far exceed any theoretical benefits.

Procedural rules governing protests and complaints challenging oil pipeline rates and practices before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, including standing requirements (substantial economic interest), specific pleading standards, filing deadlines, and mandatory settlement negotiations with penalties for bad faith participation.

This regulation imposes compliance costs and procedural barriers that sustain an unconstitutional federal regulatory regime over private contracts; the 'substantial economic interest' test and specialized pleading requirements increase legal complexity and transaction costs while the mandatory negotiation provisions coerce private parties into agency-supervised settlements, distorting market-based dispute resolution—all unseen burdens that outweigh any purported benefits of having a specialized federal procedural regime for what should be state-governed commercial matters.

This regulation establishes a complex indexing system for oil pipeline rates, limiting rate increases to a formula tied to the Producer Price Index (PPI-FG), while allowing exceptions for cost-of-service, market-based, or mutually agreed rates. It applies to all interstate oil pipelines except the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

The regulation imposes burdensome compliance costs on pipeline operators through mandatory indexing, filing requirements, and recalculations, all while distorting price signals. In a free market, oil pipeline rates would be set by voluntary negotiation and competition, not bureaucratic formulas. The PPI-based ceiling ignores actual supply/demand dynamics, discourages investment, and protects incumbents. The exception for agreed-upon rates renders the indexing system redundant. No American is worse off if markets set prices — indeed, prices would be more accurate, efficient, and just.

Comprehensive federal regulation governing how oil pipeline carriers must file, publish, format, and notify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and customers about all tariffs, rates, rules, and changes. It mandates electronic filings, specific formatting standards, 30–60 day advance notice periods, detailed content requirements for tariff publications, indexes, service obligations, and procedures for waivers and amendments.

This regulation imposes massive compliance costs on pipeline operators and shippers through micromanagement of private contractual terms. The 30–60 day notice requirement suppresses market responsiveness to supply/demand changes. Complex formatting and filing rules erect barriers to entry, favoring incumbents. Federal oversight of rate publication invades the domain of private ordering and state contract law, violating federalism. The unseen costs include delayed rate adjustments, reduced competition, and bureaucratic overhead ultimately borne by consumers through higher shipping costs.

Regulation S-T governs electronic filing requirements with the SEC through the EDGAR system. It mandates that certain filings be submitted electronically using specific formats (ASCII, HTML, XML, XBRL, PDF), requires pre-registration with Form ID and notarized authentication, and imposes account management requirements including maintaining authorized administrators, technical administrators, and annual certifications. It defines numerous technical terms and grants the Commission authority to redact information, block submissions for cybersecurity threats, and adjust filing dates for technical difficulties.

This regulation imposes unnecessary technological mandates and administrative burdens on businesses, particularly small firms, for SEC communications. The government is picking technical winners (SGML, HTML, XML, XBRL standards) and forcing compliance with complex account management rules—including multiple required administrators, annual certifications, and notarized documents—that create disproportionate costs for smaller entities. The SEC's goals of standardization and data reliability can be achieved voluntarily through market-driven adoption of best practices, avoiding the unseen consequences of stifled innovation, elevated barriers to capital markets access, and bureaucratic mission creep. Private filers should be free to choose their preferred submission methods, with the SEC accepting any reasonably accessible format or incentivizing—not mandating—electronic filing.

SEC procedures for collecting debts through administrative offset (withholding government payments) and salary offset, with due process rights including notice, record inspection, and hearings, in compliance with the Debt Collection Act.

Deleting this would harm taxpayers by making debt collection less efficient and more costly. It provides a streamlined, standardized mechanism with due process safeguards that prevents arbitrary seizures while ensuring recovery of funds owed to the government.

Defines and requires registration of 'broker associations' on futures exchange floors, imposing detailed record-keeping and public disclosure obligations on exchanges and brokers

This registration mandate imposes significant compliance costs on exchanges and traders, creating barriers to entry and stifling competition. Exchanges already have strong incentives and self-regulatory obligations to monitor for abuse; federal micromanagement of floor broker relationships represents unconstitutional overreach into private contracting and offers negligible additional protection beyond existing mechanisms.

Defines 'hybrid instruments' (securities with commodity-dependent components) and exempts them from CFTC jurisdiction when the commodity-dependent value is less than the commodity-independent value, provided they are marketed as securities, require full payment with no additional obligations, and are sold under securities/banking laws.

Deleting this exemption would subject thousands of legitimate securities with minor commodity features to duplicative CFTC regulation, increasing compliance costs for businesses and creating market uncertainty. The rule provides essential jurisdictional clarity that prevents bureaucratic mission creep, ensuring that instruments primarily functioning as securities remain under SEC oversight where they belong. Without it, the CFTC could expansively interpret its authority to cover ordinary securities, violating the principle of limited government and predictable regulation.

Consumer Product Safety Standard for disposable and novelty lighters requiring child-resistant features to prevent operation by children under 5 years old, with specific testing procedures and performance requirements.

Regulatory compliance costs for lighter manufacturers and testing procedures create unnecessary burdens on businesses, while the market could develop child-resistant alternatives through voluntary innovation without federal mandates.

Regulation implements the 1992 Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act, governing pay-per-call services (900 numbers). Requires clear cost disclosures in advertisements, preamble messages before charging, prohibits advertising to children under 12, provides billing error resolution procedures, and imposes various operational safeguards.

Deleting this regulation would leave consumers - particularly children - vulnerable to hidden charges and deceptive practices in pay-per-call services. The interstate nature of these services and inherent information asymmetries require uniform federal rules that market forces and state laws cannot adequately provide.