Federal Register

Cesar Chavez Day – Interesting Timing

by Ryan Young on April 5, 2010

in Labor, Regulation

March 31 was Cesar Chavez Day. Cesar Chavez Day has been celebrated in California for some time. A few other states also recognize the holiday. But this year, for the first time, it was a national holiday.

The trouble is that nobody knew it at the time.

On April 2, the White House filed a Presidential Document declaring the holiday. It ran in the April 5 Federal Register, five days after the fact.

You’d think this would have been announced in advance. But Chavez remains a controversial figure. And the gesture will be seen by President Obama’s adversaries as yet more evidence of his capture by labor interests.

The president could rebut those charges directly. Instead he actively avoided confrontation, which is one way of admitting guilt.

Federal Register Reaches 10,000 Pages

by Ryan Young on March 4, 2010

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Politics as Usual, Regulation

The 2010 Federal Register passed the 10,000 page mark this morning. It hit the milestone with a State Department request for grant proposals for a “One-time Competitive Grants Program – Competition A – Academic Programs.” $8,000,000 of grants are available if you’re interested.

I noted earlier that it only took 4 working days to top 1,000 pages. Now, after 42 working days, the grand total is 10,158. That’s an average of 242 new pages of rules and notices every working day.

Assuming 250 working days this year, the 2010 Federal Register is on pace to reach 60,464 pages. This would be substantially lower than last year’s figure of 68,598. Part of the slowdown is likely due to the four-day federal shutdown from last month’s snow storms. Another factor is a relative lack of major legislation (so far), as often happens in election years.

That Didn’t Take Long

by Ryan Young on January 7, 2010 · 1 comment

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Regulation

Today is the fourth working day of the new year. The Federal Register is already over 1,000 pages long.

At this rate, the 2010 Federal Register will hit 63,187 pages. This is an improvement over 2009, when it reached 69,676 pages. In 2008, it was 79,435 pages.

Movement on the U.S.-Korea FTA?

by Fran Smith on July 29, 2009

in International, Trade

It looks like things may be moving – slowly — on the trade front.  The U. S. Trade Representative has published a notice in the Federal Register asking for comments on the pending U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) is assessing how and to what extent the free trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and the Republic of Korea (Korea) signed on June 30, 2007 makes progress in achieving the applicable purposes, policies, priorities, and objectives of the Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2002 (”TPA Act”) (19 U.S.C. 3801 note) as set out in section 2102 of the TPA Act and carries out the provisions of the May 10, 2007 Congressional-Executive Agreement on Trade Policy.

Comments are due September 15, 2009. And, of course, comments have to be compiled and evaluated.  Then, the implementing legislation for Congress to consider has to be submitted.  All this, of course, is happening in an environment of increased skepticism about trade, plus an overloaded Congressional agenda, with massive health care and energy bills, not to mention the restructuring of the financial system.

Here’s some information published by CEI on the U.S. Korea trade agreement.

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