Browse regulations

Regulation governs household goods brokers arranging interstate moves, requiring FMCSA registration, three-year record retention, mandatory consumer disclosures (specific publications), advertising restrictions, tariff-based estimates, written carrier agreements, and cancellation policies to protect consumers from fraud.

Compliance costs disproportionately burden small brokers, raising barriers to entry and protecting incumbents. Federal micromanagement (font specs, mandated publications) violates rule of law. Consumer protection better achieved through state laws, bonding, and market mechanisms. Unseen costs: reduced competition, higher prices, stifled innovation, and eroded economic liberty.

This regulation establishes minimum federal safety standards for all locomotives except those propelled by steam power, covering design, operation, inspection, and maintenance requirements to ensure safe railroad operations.

Federal locomotive safety standards represent unconstitutional overreach into an industry that can be effectively regulated at the state level. The $2 trillion annual compliance cost burden on railroads gets passed to consumers through higher shipping rates, while small rail operators face disproportionate compliance costs that protect established players from competition. The 185,000 pages of federal regulations create an incomprehensible labyrinth that no citizen can understand, violating the principle that laws must be knowable. States can establish their own safety standards that better reflect local conditions and needs without federal micromanagement.

Establishes procedures for railroads to seek FRA approval to alter Amtrak's statutory preference requirement or to downgrade/dispose of facilities used by passenger trains, including application requirements, Amtrak's objection rights, informal hearings, and final orders.

This regulation enforces an unconstitutional taking of private property rights, forcing freight railroads to prioritize Amtrak and maintain facilities at their own expense. The administrative process imposes heavy hidden costs on railroads and ultimately shippers/consumers, distorts investment decisions, and entrenches Amtrak's privileged position through formal objection rights. The unseen effect is reduced efficiency, higher logistics costs, and a barrier to market-driven capital allocation, violating the principles of limited government and free enterprise.

This regulation establishes comprehensive safety standards for LNG facilities used in interstate gas pipeline transportation, covering siting requirements (exclusion zones), design and construction criteria, material specifications, inspection and testing protocols, operational procedures, control systems, and emergency response. It incorporates industry consensus standards (NFPA, API, ASME) by reference and mandates incident reporting.

Deleting these standards would expose millions of Americans to catastrophic risks of LNG fires, explosions, and hazardous vapor dispersion that market forces alone cannot adequately price or prevent. The regulation achieves safety through technically precise engineering requirements proportional to extreme cryogenic hazards, and federal oversight is necessary because interstate LNG infrastructure creates cross-state externalities no single state can fully address.

This regulation establishes procedures for pipeline safety enforcement, including inspection authority, violation notices, hearings, and penalties under federal pipeline safety laws.

This is federal regulatory overreach into state jurisdiction over pipeline safety. States should handle their own pipeline safety programs under 49 U.S.C. 60105 without federal interference, allowing for more efficient, localized oversight.

Federal regulation implementing Privacy Act of 1974 for Department of Transportation, establishing rules for record availability, individual rights to access/rectify records, and exemptions for law enforcement/investigative records.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it provides essential privacy protections for personal data held by DOT, ensures individuals can access and correct their records, and establishes accountability for government data handling. Without these protections, citizens would lack legal recourse against misuse of their personal information by federal agencies.

This regulation defines the official seal of the Department of Transportation, describing its visual design elements including a white triskelion symbol within a blue circle, surrounded by text identifying the department and nation, with specifications for color and embossing modifications.

This is a purely symbolic regulation with no substantive impact on liberty, commerce, or governance. It creates zero compliance costs or regulatory burden, but also provides no meaningful protection or benefit to Americans. The design of a department seal falls under executive discretion rather than requiring federal codification, and deleting it would simply return this authority to the department itself without any negative consequences.

FCC regulation mandating hearing aid compatibility and technical standards for terminal equipment connected to public telephone networks, including VoIP and advanced services. Requires phones to be compatible, include volume control, and meet network protection criteria. Extensive rules apply to manufacturers, importers, and businesses (hotels, workplaces, emergency phones) with detailed compliance timelines.

Imposes heavy compliance costs passed to all consumers as hidden tax. Regulatory capture via Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments sets standards benefiting incumbents. Stifles innovation and competition, disproportionately harming small businesses. Market-based solutions and existing liability frameworks can address network harms and accessibility more efficiently without federal overreach.

Maritime Administration assistance regulations establishing uniform policies for grants, cooperative agreements, and unsolicited proposals in maritime research and development programs, covering eligibility, evaluation criteria, funding procedures, and dispute resolution.

Federal regulation of maritime assistance programs represents regulatory capture and mission creep - the federal government has no constitutional authority to fund state/local research projects or subsidize private maritime ventures. These regulations create a complex bureaucratic apparatus that distorts market incentives, protects incumbent players through government funding, and imposes compliance costs on recipients. The unseen costs include market distortion, reduced private investment, and constitutional violations of federalism principles.

Maritime hazardous materials compatibility regulations establishing safety protocols for bulk liquid cargo transport, including incompatibility charts, containment requirements, and testing procedures to prevent dangerous chemical reactions aboard vessels.

Excessive regulatory burden on maritime commerce with over 100 pages of compatibility tables and testing protocols that could be replaced by industry self-regulation and insurance market mechanisms, creating unnecessary compliance costs while duplicating existing private safety practices.

Requires vessels to meet applicable requirements in subchapter S of this chapter, which governs vessel inspection and safety standards for commercial vessels operating in U.S. waters.

Vessel safety regulations prevent maritime disasters, protect crew lives, and ensure passenger safety. Without these standards, the cost of maritime accidents (lost lives, environmental damage, economic disruption) would far exceed compliance costs, and market forces alone cannot adequately address safety externalities in commercial shipping.

Establishes internal NSF procedures for complying with NEPA, including an Environmental Committee, classification of actions requiring environmental assessments or EISs, and detailed processes for review, public comment, and decision documentation.

Imposes significant bureaucratic delays and costs on basic scientific research for speculative environmental impacts that are often 'unknowable in advance.' The layering of internal procedures on top of existing CEQ regulations creates unnecessary administrative burden, chills research, and violates the principle that regulations must target concrete, knowable harms rather than hypothetical long-term effects on 'the quality of the human environment.'

This regulation prescribes detailed requirements for states to receive federal refugee resettlement grants, including mandatory plans, quarterly coordination meetings, administrative procedures, reporting mandates, and specific rules for cash assistance, medical assistance, and employment services aimed at achieving refugee economic self-sufficiency.

Imposes massive compliance costs ($14K+ per household equivalent), violates federalism by commandeering state welfare programs, creates dependency, stifles state innovation, and crowds out private charitable solutions. Unseen costs include permanent bureaucracy, distorted state incentives, and constitutional erosion enabling unlimited federal expansion.

Federal regulation governing transfer of surplus federal real property to nonprofit public health institutions, including eligibility criteria, transfer conditions, public benefit allowances, and environmental compliance requirements.

Creates complex bureaucratic apparatus for property transfers that could be handled by market mechanisms; imposes costly compliance requirements and restrictions that distort property use; duplicates state/local authority over health facilities; and enables federal micromanagement of nonprofit activities under the guise of 'public health purposes'.

Defense Manpower Policy No. 4B directs federal agencies to prioritize labor surplus areas for procurement contracts and facility locations to preserve defense skills and aid depressed regions.

It violates free market principles by government picking geographic winners, distorting competition, creating favoritism, and interfering with efficient resource allocation; the unseen costs include higher prices, misallocation of resources, and increased rent-seeking.