Browse regulations

The regulation implements the Vessel Bridge-to-Bridge Radiotelephone Act, requiring specific power-driven, passenger, towing, and dredging vessels on U.S. navigable waters to carry VHF radios capable of transmitting and receiving on designated frequencies (including channel 67 on the Mississippi River and VTS areas) for safe navigation and collision avoidance.

Without this regulation, maritime collisions would increase, causing loss of life, environmental disasters, and economic disruption. Standardized communication is a necessary government function to address coordination externalities that markets cannot solve; voluntary systems would fail due to incomplete adoption. The modest compliance costs are vastly outweighed by the safety benefits and prevention of catastrophic harm.

Sets mandatory health standards for respirable dust in surface coal mines and surface work areas of underground mines, including dust concentration limits (2.0 mg/m³, 1.5 mg/m³ as of 2016), quarterly sampling with approved devices, certified personnel, and enforcement with corrective action plans.

Miners would suffer preventable black lung deaths without it. Market mechanisms fail due to severe information asymmetry and delayed health effects; miners can't negotiate safe conditions, and competitive pressures would cause a race to the bottom in safety. The regulation's mandatory standards and enforcement ensure baseline protection.

This regulation establishes a comprehensive federal approval system for DC fuses used in coal mine trailing cable short-circuit protection, requiring third-party testing, quality control plans, and MSHA certification with ongoing compliance requirements including biennial retesting and inspection rights.

Creates unnecessary federal bureaucracy for specialized mining equipment that states could regulate effectively, imposes costly compliance burdens on manufacturers, and duplicates existing industry safety standards (UL-198) while creating a complex approval process that stifles innovation and competition in fuse technology.

This regulation clarifies the definition of 'employer' under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Williams-Steiger Act), extending coverage virtually universally to any person or organization employing one or more people in activities affecting interstate commerce. It explicitly includes professionals, agricultural employers, charitable organizations, and religious groups (for secular activities), while excluding federal/state governments and purely religious functions. The interpretation relies on a maximally expansive reading of the Commerce Clause to achieve 'so far as possible' protection for every worker.

This rule imposes a sweeping federal regulatory burden on nearly all employers—including small nonprofits, churches, farms, and professional offices—creating disproportionate compliance costs for the smallest entities while trampling federalism. The 'business affecting commerce' standard is so expansive that it renders the constitutional limitation a nullity, transforming OSHA into a general workplace code for the entire nation regardless of local conditions or actual risk. Rather than empowering states to tailor protections or allowing market-based safety standards (like contract specifications, insurance requirements, and tort liability), this top-down approach generates $14,000+ per household in hidden compliance costs while producing questionable safety gains. The regulation's true effect is to protect established players who can absorb compliance costs while burdening the small businesses that create most new jobs—the exact opposite of the competitive dynamism that built America.

EEOC guidelines establishing that sex discrimination in employment is unlawful under Title VII, including prohibitions on sex-based job classifications, pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, and disparate benefits, with narrow exceptions for bona fide occupational qualifications like authenticity in acting roles.

Federal overreach into private employment decisions that should be left to states and businesses; creates costly compliance burdens and legal risks for employers while distorting labor markets through one-size-fits-all regulations that ignore legitimate business needs.

This interpretative bulletin from the Department of Labor provides official guidance on applying the Fair Labor Standards Act's agricultural exemptions from minimum wage and overtime requirements. It defines 'agriculture' broadly, explains primary and secondary meanings, and details numerous specific exemptions for various agricultural operations including farms, processing, transportation, and related activities. The regulation serves as binding guidance for employers and enforcement agencies.

This regulatory layer atop the FLSA imposes compliance costs and enforcement complexity while creating artificial classifications that distort labor markets. The exemptions themselves acknowledge the economic reality that agricultural labor markets differ from industrial ones—a truth that should apply to ALL sectors. The guidance creates a compliance industry, favors bureaucratic interpretation over contract freedom, and perpetuates the flawed premise that government should dictate wage terms. Eliminate the underlying mandate, not just the interpretive wrapper.

25 CFR Part 16 requires Bureau of Indian Affairs approval for all transactions (sales, leases, mortgages, wills, probate) involving restricted property of Five Civilized Tribes members, placing the U.S. as trustee and limiting individual property rights.

This regulation violates constitutional federalism by infringing tribal sovereignty and limited government. It imposes significant unseen costs—bureaucratic delays, reduced asset liquidity, and dependency—while likely failing to protect against exploitation more effectively than tribal self-governance. Regulatory capture risks and unintended consequences like stunted economic development further undermine its value. Tribal control with federal support would better serve liberty and free enterprise.

Requires real estate brokers, agents, landlords, and related businesses to display fair housing posters informing people of their rights under the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, and familial status in housing transactions.

The poster requirement creates minimal actual compliance benefit while imposing unnecessary regulatory burden. Discriminatory actors already face severe legal penalties for violations; the poster adds only symbolic compliance costs without meaningfully deterring discrimination or informing victims who would already know their rights through other channels. Small businesses face disproportionate compliance costs for a regulation that achieves no measurable reduction in housing discrimination.

Regulation implements the Freedom of Information Act for the Inter-American Foundation, establishing procedures for public access to agency records, including request requirements, fee schedules, exemptions, and an appeals process.

Deletion would eliminate transparency and accountability for this federal agency, making it harder for citizens to monitor how their tax dollars are used and to hold the Foundation responsible for its operations; the regulation ensures FOIA compliance with clear, predictable procedures that serve the public's right to know.

Federal regulation requiring states to administer unemployment compensation appeals with 'greatest promptness administratively feasible' and meet specific performance metrics (60% within 30 days, 80% within 45 days for first-level appeals) as a condition for receiving federal Social Security Act grants.

This regulation imposes costly, rigid federal mandates on state unemployment agencies, violating federalism principles. The specific timeline percentages encourage prioritizing speed over fairness, create gaming incentives, and ignore local variations. States can manage their own appeals processes more efficiently without federal micromanagement, and the funding condition coerces states into compliance with one-size-fits-all rules that increase administrative burdens and distort incentives.

This regulation establishes Customs and Border Protection's authority to inspect, search, seize, and forfeit property entering or leaving the United States, including vessels, vehicles, aircraft, merchandise, and controlled substances, with procedures for warrants, notices, and disposal of seized property.

This regulation grants sweeping government authority to search and seize property without due process, creating a massive administrative state apparatus that violates Fourth Amendment protections and enables civil asset forfeiture abuse against innocent Americans.

This regulation governs Customs enforcement of import/export laws for other federal agencies, including arms, controlled substances, economic sanctions, nuclear materials, and commerce regulations. It establishes procedures for offers in compromise of government claims, informant compensation systems, and confidentiality protections for informants providing information on customs fraud or violations.

This regulation represents federal overreach by having Customs enforce laws that properly belong to specialized agencies (State Department, ATF, DEA, NRC, Commerce). The informant compensation system creates perverse incentives for false reporting and entrapment, while the confidentiality provisions enable government secrecy. These functions could be handled by the respective agencies without a centralized Customs enforcement bureaucracy.

This regulation establishes procedures for granting duty relief on imported merchandise that is lost, damaged, abandoned, or exported, including provisions for joint determinations of quantities, filing of Customs Form 5931 for missing packages, allowances for deficiencies, and procedures for abandonment or destruction of merchandise with duty refunds.

This regulation creates a complex bureaucratic system for duty refunds that distorts market incentives, increases compliance costs for businesses, and protects large importers while disadvantaging small businesses. The unseen costs include reduced supply due to damage allowances, increased prices from administrative overhead, and regulatory capture by established players who can navigate the system. Free markets would naturally handle quality control and insurance without federal intervention.

This regulation implements country of origin marking requirements for imported goods under the Tariff Act of 1930, requiring articles to be marked with their country of origin in English to inform ultimate purchasers. It establishes detailed rules for what constitutes "country of origin," exemptions, marking methods, and enforcement procedures including 10% duty penalties for non-compliance.

This regulatory burden imposes substantial compliance costs on businesses, creates unnecessary complexity for legitimate commerce, and represents federal overreach into what should be market-driven information provision. The marking requirements add billions in compliance costs, distort trade decisions, and create barriers for small businesses without providing commensurate consumer benefits that markets cannot supply through voluntary labeling.

Provides procedures for recording trademarks, trade names, and copyrights with U.S. Customs to prohibit importation of counterfeit, piratical, or restricted articles, and sets forth disposition procedures for such articles including release to importers under certain circumstances.

This regulation creates a federal bureaucracy for intellectual property enforcement that properly belongs to states and private contractual arrangements. It imposes compliance costs on businesses, creates barriers to legitimate gray market trade, and enables rent-seeking by incumbent IP holders at the expense of consumers and competition.