President Barack Obama’s administration withheld some of the most controversial environmental and healthcare regulations during October so as not to jeopardize his reelection chances. However, the federal government has still posted an average of 68 regulations and notices a day for the last three months.
Those in the business community predicted there would be a “tsunami of regulations” if Obama won reelection. A CNS analysis found 6,124 regulations and notices posted on the federal government’s regulations.gov website in the past 90 days, which may seem like limited government in comparison to what may be in store in the coming months.
Announcements on the regulations.gov website over the past few weeks included those dealing with meetings open to the public to proposed rule changes in need of public comment.
One posting concerns a “12-month finding” dealing with the endangered status for the Acuna Cactus and the Fickesian Plains Cactus and designation of critical habita.
Another is a proposed rule dealing with “volatile organic compound emissions from architectural coatings” under the Clean Air Act.
There is even a rule that dealt with clarifying a “provision of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and the regulations issued thereunder that requires periodic residue testing of organically produced agricultural products by accredited certifying agents.”
The final rule makes clear that “accredited certifying agents must conduct periodic residue testing of agricultural products that are to be sold, labeled, or represented as ‘100 percent organic,’ ‘organic,’ or ‘made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s)).'”
The producers now requires certifying agents, on an annual basis, to “sample and conduct residue testing from a minimum of five percent of the operations that they certify” to “ensure the integrity of products produced.”
These regulations are hardly those that would be deemed “economically significant” (regulations that would have at least a $100 million impact on the economy), but now that Obama has been reelected, many more of such “economically significant” regulations will be rolled out in the coming weeks and months.