Browse regulations

Regulation establishes premium pay (overtime, night, Sunday, holiday) for federal civilian employees, with numerous exceptions and caps. It defines covered employees, sets biweekly and annual limits on premium pay based on GS-15 and Executive Schedule levels, and includes special provisions for emergencies, mission-critical work, and specific occupations.

The regulation imposes significant administrative overhead on federal agencies, diverting resources from core missions. Its rigid caps discourage necessary overtime during emergencies, potentially jeopardizing public safety and increasing reliance on expensive contractors. The complexity contributes to the unaccountable bureaucratic maze, violating the principle that laws must be knowable. Unseen costs include perverse incentives to misclassify workers or avoid overtime, harming efficiency and burdening taxpayers.

This regulation establishes the federal position classification system for civilian employees, defining terms like class, grade, and position. It outlines procedures for determining classification, appeal rights for employees and agencies, reconsideration processes, and rules for effective dates and retroactivity. The system assigns federal jobs to categories that determine pay under the General Schedule.

This internal bureaucratic classification system exemplifies centralized planning's knowledge problem—OPM cannot optimally categorize thousands of diverse positions across hundreds of agencies. It creates massive administrative overhead, distorts incentives toward classification gaming over performance, and prevents market-responsive compensation needed to attract talent. The rigid structure and appeals machinery impose real costs on agencies while protecting incumbents, exactly the unintended consequence Mises warned of. Federal workforce compensation should be streamlined using market principles, not complex categorical rules that no one can fully comprehend.

This regulation governs federal employee detail and transfer to international organizations, the IAEA, foreign assistance programs, and tribal organizations under the Indian Self-Determination Act. It establishes eligibility criteria, time limits (typically 5 years, extendable to 8), reemployment rights with pay and seniority protection, benefit continuation, and appeal procedures to the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Without these standardized protections, federal employees would be less likely to accept temporary assignments that serve vital national interests in diplomacy, international cooperation, tribal partnerships, and foreign assistance, undermining program effectiveness. The regulation ensures talent can be mobilized for these missions without career penalty—an outcome difficult to achieve through ad hoc arrangements—and the modest administrative costs are justified by the value of maintaining a reliable, fair system for mobilizing federal expertise where it advances American interests.

This regulation governs federal competitive service hiring procedures, including examination types, veteran preferences, register management, certification, selection, objections, and certificate sharing between agencies. It establishes complex rules for how OPM and agencies evaluate, rank, and appoint candidates to federal positions, with extensive special provisions for veterans and other preference eligibles.

This represents a massive regulatory burden on federal hiring that distorts merit principles, creates high administrative costs, and slows recruitment. The veteran preference system, while well-intentioned, elevates non-merit factors over qualifications. The 240-day certificate limits, three-consideration rules, shared certificate restrictions, and extensive procedural requirements create bureaucratic complexity that impedes agencies from hiring the best talent efficiently. This layer of rules is precisely the type of regulatory accumulation that increases government transaction costs without improving outcomes—the hidden tax in action. Federal hiring could be handled with far simpler, outcome-focused rules that prioritize competence and reduce administrative overhead.

Regulation governing federal agency authority to make temporary and term appointments for non-permanent positions, with time limits ranging from 1-2 years for general temporary work, up to 4 years for most term appointments, and up to 10 years for specific occupational categories (scientists, engineers, IT, etc.). Includes provisions for student internships, veteran preferences, conversion pathways, and reporting requirements.

This is an internal personnel management regulation that provides necessary flexibility for agencies to handle temporary needs (projects, workload spikes, student employment) without creating permanent positions. It contains built-in safeguards: clear time limits, reporting to Congress, veteran and student preferences, and conversion pathways. Deleting it would force agencies to either overhire permanent staff for temporary needs or operate without critical temporary staffing flexibility, reducing government efficiency and increasing long-term costs. The administrative burden is minimal compared to the benefits of flexible, accountable hiring.

Establishes the service requirements and creditable service rules for federal competitive service employees to achieve career tenure (permanent status) after 3 years, including detailed criteria for various appointment types, exceptions, and provisions for reinstatement, transfer, and special hiring authorities.

Ensures a professional, nonpartisan federal workforce by providing objective, uniform tenure rules that protect career employees from political coercion and arbitrary dismissal; removing it would invite patronage, increase turnover, and undermine the merit-based civil service essential to accountable governance.

Defines the competitive service and competitive status within the federal civil service system, establishing eligibility criteria for noncompetitive appointments and transfers between positions.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it ensures merit-based federal hiring and prevents patronage. Without competitive status rules, federal positions could be filled through political favoritism, undermining government efficiency and creating a spoils system that rewards connections over competence.

A 1920s-era regulatory order suspending provisions of the Merchant Marine Act and prescribing conditions for railroad transportation rates on export/import shipments during the suspension period, referencing Interstate Commerce Commission authority

This century-old temporary order is obsolete and likely long since rescinded or superseded. Its mere presence in modern regulations creates harmful clutter that undermines the rule of law principle that rules must be knowable. Even if still technically active, it represents the type of rate regulation that distorts market pricing and creates barriers to efficient transportation commerce

This regulation mandates that Class I railroads submit detailed quarterly and annual reports to the Surface Transportation Board on employee counts, service hours, and compensation. It defines 'employee' based on supervisory control, requires counting employees 12 times yearly, specifies rules for joint employees, and provides detailed instructions for reporting hours and allocating compensation when workers perform multiple jobs. Two forms are used: Form A for non-train/engine employees and Form B for train/engine employees.

The regulation imposes substantial compliance costs—detailed tracking of hours, splitting compensation for multi-job employees, and frequent reporting—that distort business decisions without a clear necessity. The granular data collection on private payrolls exceeds any legitimate federal interest in railroad oversight and could be obtained through less intrusive means. The unseen costs include administrative waste, privacy violations, and the risk of future labor market interventions based on collected data. This represents bureaucratic mission creep rather than a constitutionally authorized function.

This regulation establishes administrative procedures for collecting civil penalties and forfeitures up to $20,000 under the Interstate Commerce Act. It creates a process for notifying debtors, negotiating settlements, and collecting payments electronically, delegating authority to the Surface Transportation Board's Office of Public Assistance to handle enforcement claims administratively without court involvement.

This regulation creates a bureaucratic enforcement mechanism that bypasses due process and constitutional protections. By allowing administrative collection of penalties up to $20,000 without judicial review, it violates the Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury for civil disputes. The regulation also represents federal overreach into transportation regulation that should be handled at state or market levels, and creates compliance costs that disproportionately burden small businesses while protecting large incumbents from competition.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations governing cash-on-delivery (COD) shipments, credit terms for freight transportation, freight bill presentation timing, and collection of overdue charges. The rules establish standardized credit periods (typically 15 days), service charge mechanisms for late payments, bill presentation deadlines (7 days for prepaid/collect shipments), and dispute resolution procedures for COD transactions between motor carriers and shippers.

These regulations create unnecessary compliance costs and operational complexity for small motor carriers and shippers. The mandated credit periods, service charge structures, and bill presentation timelines impose rigid requirements that could be better handled through private contract. The rules distort market pricing signals, protect large carriers through compliance barriers, and interfere with voluntary commercial relationships that would naturally establish efficient payment terms without federal intervention.

This regulation governs exemptions from federal motor carrier regulations for cooperative associations, defining terms, setting tonnage limits for nonmember transportation, and establishing commercial zones where motor vehicle transportation is partially exempt from federal oversight.

This creates a complex regulatory framework that distorts market competition by giving preferential treatment to cooperative associations while imposing burdensome compliance requirements on other businesses. The tonnage limits, record-keeping mandates, and commercial zone definitions create artificial barriers that protect incumbent players and raise costs for consumers.

Prescribes procedural rules for Secretarial review of Maritime Subsidy Board decisions, including petition filing requirements, timelines, format specifications, and standards for granting review. Establishes procedures for administrative appeals within the Department of Transportation regarding maritime subsidy decisions.

This regulation administers a federal maritime subsidy program that violates free market principles by bureaucratically allocating capital to favored industry players. The entire Maritime Subsidy Board represents unconstitutional federal overreach into what should be private enterprise decisions, distorting market competition and transferring wealth from taxpayers to specific firms through the Administrative State. Even the appeal process perpetuates this illegitimate interventionist framework that the Founders never envisioned and the Tenth Amendment forbids.

Procedural rules governing HHS administrative hearings under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, detailing filing requirements, service protocols, evidence admissibility, witness examination, amicus participation, ex parte communication restrictions, timelines, and decision-making processes for formal adjudications.

These rules impose unnecessary compliance burdens that inflate legal costs and create procedural barriers, particularly disadvantaging unrepresented parties and small entities. The arcane formatting mandates, rigid timelines, and formalized processes duplicate protections available under the Administrative Procedure Act while expanding bureaucratic overhead. The unseen cost is that parties expend resources navigating procedural technicalities rather than focusing on substantive merits, and the complexity favors well-funded actors with legal counsel, distorting access to administrative justice.

These regulations establish the procedures for filing, processing, and settling tort claims against the Department of Health and Human Services under the Federal Tort Claims Act. They specify required forms (Standard Form 95), eligible claimants, mandatory evidence for different claim types (death, personal injury, property damage), investigation processes, denial and reconsideration procedures, payment requirements, and consultation thresholds with the Department of Justice for claims over $25,000 or involving novel legal issues.

Without these regulations, citizens harmed by HHS negligence would face a chaotic, arbitrary claims process with no standardized procedures, clear evidence requirements, or timelines. The FTCA creates a limited waiver of sovereign immunity to provide a remedy; these implementing regulations make that remedy accessible and fair. Deleting them would create uncertainty, delay justice, and potentially deny compensation to injured parties due to inconsistent administrative handling. The modest procedural requirements benefit both claimants and the government by ensuring efficient, uniform processing while deterring fraud.