Joe Biden may be leaving office in a few weeks, but not before performing a ritual common to all lame-duck presidents: the infamous "Midnight Rulemaking."
The "Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions," a twice-yearly publication of the Office of Management and Budget, highlights the status of all federal rules and regulations being considered across all departments and agencies. (We'll refer to this page-turner as "the Agenda.")
The "deregulatory" part of the publication could usually be left almost blank. But what makes this Agenda so damaging is that federal agencies and departments are powering through the process to get as many of these regulations passed as possible before Joe Biden leaves office.
"The bottom line is that agencies’ rulemakings are not constrained to those disclosed in the Agenda unless an administration requires it," notes Forbes. What's actually is in the Agenda is bad enough.
Take the preamble to the section on the Department of Agriculture. It reflects the woke priorities of the Biden administration at the expense of mundane stuff like, I don't know, growing food?
“All of USDA’s programs, including the priorities contained in this Regulatory Plan, will be structured to advance the cause of equity by removing barriers and opening new opportunities for all of our customers.”
God save us from liberals and other fools.
Who knew USDA was a business with “customers”? Similar, the Environmental Protection Agency’s preamble singles out “communities with environmental justice concerns” in its very first sentence. Such custodial attitudes are deeply rooted now and pose challenges for the incoming Trump administration and the advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Agencies finalize thousands of rules and regulations every year compared to the handful of laws Congress enacts. There have been 3,059 final rules in 2024 as of today, amid a 101,836 page Federal Register that already outstrips Obama’s 2016 record of 95,894 pages.
Someone make it stop. I'm looking at you, Elon, and you, Vivek.
Each and every one of those more than 3,000 final rules carries the force of law. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, and violating any of these 3,000 rules will land you in front of a judge quicker than you can blink.
Obviously, the rules are not meant to be read and understood by almost anyone. That's what we have regulatory compliance officers for, dummy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects 4.6% employment growth for compliance officers between 2022 and 2032.
Regulations are getting more expensive to comply with, as regulators desperately look to justify their existence by finding more and more things to regulate. Congress wisely passed the Congressional Review Act that gives Congress 60 days from the publication of a rule to scuttle it. But when there are 3,000 rules published every year, how can Congress possibly review and act on all the rules that are crazy, stupid, or damaging?
DOGE will only be able to recommend to Congress which rules should be given the heave-ho. They will have no power to get rid of the rules themselves. But Elon and Vivek might want to start with these "Midnight Rules" promulgated by the Biden administration.
In recent weeks, some of these midnight regulations have already been published in the Federal Register, making them official and (if they have been properly transmitted to Congress) subject to CRA disapproval. Many of the others are likely to be published by Jan. 17, the Friday before the presidential inauguration. But Congress is likely to focus its attention on the most costly rules. The Unified Agenda lists five major final rules at the Department of Transportation set to be published in December or January.
One of those rules most likely to be axed is from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration: "Pipeline Safety: Gas Pipeline Leak Detection and Repair." The natural gas industry has opposed the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s efforts to regulate the tiny amount of methane leaking from pipelines, and given the incoming administration's support of the fossil fuel industry, they're likely to agree.
Also, trucking companies and truckers are opposed to the effort to require big rigs to acquire automatic braking systems. Studies have shown only a marginal improvement in avoiding accidents.
The regulatory state is here to stay, no matter who sits in the Oval Office. That's not what the Founding Fathers intended; nor is it any way to run a free country.
