Browse regulations

EAJA implementing regulations for OSHRC award attorney fees to eligible small entities and individuals who prevail in adversary adjudications or successfully defend against excessive agency demands, aiming to deter unreasonable enforcement and level the playing field.

Deletion would eliminate the only practical check on OSHA's enforcement power, allowing the agency to use its unlimited resources to crush small businesses via financial attrition regardless of case merits. The regulation achieves deterrence while limiting costs through eligibility caps and a 'substantially justified' standard that protects legitimate enforcement. No alternative mechanism provides comparable protection at comparable administrative overhead.

Mandates electronic submission of labor dispute notices to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service via their platform, with assistance available for filers facing undue hardship. Standardizes the process using Form F-7.

Deletion would revert to slower, costlier paper processes that delay dispute resolution. The efficient electronic system prevents prolonged labor conflicts that disrupt commerce and essential services, causing far greater economic harm than minimal compliance costs. The hardship provision ensures accessibility while achieving streamlined administration that benefits the public.

Procedural rules governing the Administrative Review Board (ARB), establishing its authority as the Secretary of Labor's representative, and defining filing/service procedures including mandatory e-filing for attorneys with good cause exceptions, time computation rules, and service methods.

Provides essential procedural clarity ensuring fair access to administrative appeals; deleting would create uncertainty, missed deadlines, and unequal treatment in labor dispute adjudication.

Implements a $15/hour minimum wage (adjusted annually for inflation) for workers on federal contracts, covering construction, service, concessions, and certain other contracts with the federal government, with enforcement through withholding, complaints process, and anti-retaliation provisions.

Imposes above-market wage floors that increase contractor costs (passed to taxpayers), reduces employment opportunities for low-skilled workers, distorts market price signals, and represents unconstitutional federal overreach into voluntary contracts; compliance burden adds to regulatory maze without demonstrable procurement savings.

Implements the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), requiring all sex offenders to register extensive personal information (name, SSN, addresses, employment, school, vehicles, travel, etc.) with jurisdictions where they reside, work, or study, with tiered registration periods (15 years to life) and frequent in-person verification requirements. Establishes criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. 2250 for non-compliance and sets an affirmative defense for uncontrollable circumstances.

This regulation imposes staggering compliance costs and lifelong surveillance on individuals who have already served their sentences, violating the principle of limited government and the right to exit the penal system. It creates vast databases that enable vigilante violence while providing questionable public safety benefits—most sex crimes are committed by non-registered individuals, and registries themselves may increase recidivism by destroying reintegration. The federal commandeering of state law enforcement functions represents a severe erosion of constitutional federalism and the Tenth Amendment. The rule is overbroad, applying retroactively to decades-old convictions where the original sentence carried no such lifetime stigma, undermining the rule of law's requirement that laws be knowable and prospective. The $2 trillion regulatory burden includes this expansive monitoring apparatus that does not demonstrably prevent crime but guarantees perpetual state control over citizens.

The Indian Business Incubators Program provides competitive grants from the Office of Indian Economic Development to eligible entities (Indian Tribes, Tribal colleges/universities, higher education institutions, and Tribal/private nonprofits) to establish business incubators that offer workspace, training, mentorship, and networking services specifically to Native American businesses and entrepreneurs on reservation communities. Grants require a 25% non-federal match (waivable), last three years with possible renewal, and include extensive reporting requirements.

This program imposes significant hidden costs on taxpayers, creates compliance burdens, and violates limited government principles by redistributing wealth based on racial classification. It distorts markets, risks regulatory capture in grant allocation, and may crowd out private incubator development. The federal government has no legitimate role in picking business winners; private markets, philanthropy, and tribal sovereignty can address these needs without centralized intervention. Unseen consequences include dependency creation and bureaucratic expansion.

This regulation governs the Bureau of Indian Affairs Land Title and Records Office (LTRO), establishing procedures for recording title documents, maintaining records, certifying title status, and providing access to records for Indian land held in trust by the United States. It defines roles, recording requirements, fees, and allows tribal self-determination contracts for non-inherently federal functions.

The U.S. has a unique fiduciary trust duty to Native Americans from treaties and federal law; this administrative system ensures reliable, authoritative land title records that protect property rights within that trust relationship. Eliminating it would cloud title, create uncertainty for transactions, and violate the government's legal and moral obligations. The regulation enables tribal self-determination, provides necessary clarity for trust land transactions, and maintains a centralized, trustworthy repository that could not be replicated by private markets given the government's direct trust responsibility.

Requires the Superintendent of the Osage Agency to compile voter eligibility lists for Osage Minerals Council elections based on the March quarterly annuity roll, including names, addresses, and for vote calculation, headright interests. This is a narrow administrative procedure for tribal governance of mineral resources.

This regulation is narrowly tailored to tribal self-governance, imposes minimal administrative costs on a specific federal agency, and facilitates democratic processes for the Osage Nation's mineral rights. Deletion would create electoral uncertainty and potential disputes without any meaningful reduction in regulatory burden on American households or businesses.

Regulation governs leasing of Bureau of Indian Education school facilities to public/private entities for funds and employee fundraising activities. Establishes approval processes by Director/designee, considers fair market value and net benefit to school, restricts use to 'school purposes,' imposes ethics and impartiality standards, requires annual reporting, and sets enforcement mechanisms. Applies solely to federal BIE-operated schools, not public or tribally-controlled schools.

Deletion would eliminate accountability for federal assets and trust funds in schools serving Native American students, creating corruption risks and potential misuse. The regulation's narrowly tailored safeguards—ethics rules, fund usage restrictions, and reporting—are necessary to maintain public confidence and ensure resources benefit students, while imposing minimal compliance burden on these federally-run institutions.

Establishes a detailed administrative procedure for Peace Corps applicants, trainees, and volunteers to file and resolve discrimination complaints based on protected characteristics. Requires initial contact within 60 days, mandatory counseling, formal written complaint, impartial investigation (120-day target), and appeal to the Peace Corps Director, with potential corrective actions like reinstatement or selection.

The regulation imposes significant administrative costs through its multi-step, bureaucratic process, diverting scarce Peace Corps resources from its core volunteer support mission. Unseen effects include fostering a risk-averse culture that chills effective management decisions, encouraging grievance filings that could be handled more simply, and creating a legalistic apparatus in a voluntary program where alternative channels (e.g., direct appeals to leadership, OIG referrals, or external remedies) already exist. The compliance burden and hidden opportunity costs outweigh the benefits of a standardized internal procedure.

This regulation requires premarket FDA approval for all new tobacco products, mandating extensive documentation on formulation, manufacturing, health risks, and marketing plans before products can be sold. It defines detailed technical terms and applies broadly to tobacco products, with exemptions for modified risk applications and premium cigars.

The PMTA process imposes crushing compliance costs that protect incumbent tobacco companies from competition, delay potentially less harmful alternatives like e-cigarettes, and create barriers that small businesses cannot overcome. Its unseen consequences include regulatory capture by the industry it regulates, black markets for unregulated products, stifled innovation, higher consumer prices, and unconstitutional federal overreach into personal choice that belongs to states under the Tenth Amendment.

This regulation from the Delaware River Basin Commission prohibits high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) and the discharge of wastewater from HVHF-related activities within the Delaware River Basin. It defines HVHF as using 300,000+ gallons of water in well completion and claims these activities pose significant risks to water resources, requiring prohibition to protect the Comprehensive Plan.

This regulation imposes a blanket prohibition overriding state regulatory frameworks and property rights, eliminating economic development and energy production that could be safely managed through risk-based permitting, bonding, and liability regimes. The unseen costs include higher energy prices, lost tax revenue, suppressed economic opportunity for landowners and small businesses, and violation of principles of subsidiarity—states like Pennsylvania have demonstrated that fracking can coexist with robust environmental protection. The prohibition exceeds what's necessary to protect water resources and represents centralized planning that cannot account for local conditions and tradeoffs.

This is an informational notice directing the public to where current OMB control numbers for information collection requirements can be found on the FERC website.

Purely advisory with no substantive legal effect; information is already publicly accessible online, and the underlying Paperwork Reduction Act requirements exist independently of this notice.

CFTC regulation detailing bankruptcy procedures for commodity brokers (futures commission merchants and clearing organizations). Defines account classes (futures, foreign futures, cleared swaps, delivery), prioritizes public customers over non-public customers, and establishes rules for porting positions, pro-rata distributions, and delivery obligations to maintain market stability during broker insolvency.

Deletion would expose retail commodity investors to greater losses and market chaos during broker failures. Standard bankruptcy law lacks the technical framework to handle daily margining, cross-margining programs, and delivery obligations unique to these markets. The CFTC's specialized rules ensure orderly resolution, protect less sophisticated customers, and prevent systemic disruption—outcomes unlikely from ad hoc judicial proceedings.

This regulation requires cotton merchants and dealers to file weekly CFTC Form 304 reports detailing their positions and transactions in cotton-on-call (spot cotton with unfixed prices based on futures). It also authorizes the CFTC's Division of Enforcement to issue special calls for additional information. The purpose is market surveillance of cotton futures positions.

This reporting mandate imposes compliance costs on cotton market participants without clear justification that the benefits outweigh the burdens. Market transparency and manipulation prevention can be achieved through exchange self-regulation and existing fraud laws. The regulation represents federal overreach into voluntary commodity transactions, burdening small businesses disproportionately and interfering with the price discovery function of futures markets.