As the calendar turned from January to February, the level of regulatory activity faded considerably. Over this past week, there were nine rulemakings that contained some kind of measurable economic impact. None of these actions, however, exceeded the $100 million threshold in terms of either costs or savings. The week’s “leader in the clubhouse” was a relatively mundane Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule that updates the requirements for cockpit voice recorders. Federal agencies published roughly $79.5 million in total costs but cut 45,915 paperwork burden hours.

REGULATORY TOPLINES

• Proposed Rules This Week: 28
• Final Rules This Week: 48
• 2026 Total Pages: 5,646
• 2026 Final Rule Costs: -$8.1 billion
• 2026 Proposed Rule Costs: $7.1 billion

NOTABLE REGULATORY ACTIONS

The most significant rulemaking of the week, at least from a cost-benefit standpoint, was the FAA rule regarding “25-Hour Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) Requirement, New Aircraft Production.” Specifically, the rule “increases the recording time of cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) from the currently mandated 2 hours to 25 hours for all affected future manufactured aircraft.” The agency estimates that the total costs of updating affected aircraft going forward will add up to nearly $70 million. Interestingly, the rule is one of the few in which the Trump Administration is finalizing a rulemaking that began under the Biden Administration.

TRACKING TRUMP 2.0

The CVR rule discussed above has the distinction of being the first rulemaking (with quantifiable costs) that carries a “regulatory” designation under Executive Order (EO) 14192 so far this year. In assessing 2026 rulemakings that include an EO 14192 determination, there have been 14 “deregulatory” rules with combined total savings of $8.7 billion against one “regulatory” rule that involves roughly $70 million in costs. Adding that to the total that agencies produced during 2025 (at least from rules that had a clear “regulatory” or “deregulatory” designation), the Trump Administration has enacted $148.6 billion in total cost reductions thus far under the auspices of EO 14192. This rule brings nearly $360 million in paperwork-related costs, but the agency issuing it (Department of State) claims it is exempt from EO 14192 consideration since it “is issued with respect to foreign affairs-related functions.” This rule, with $5.3 million in costs, claims the “immigration-related function” exemption.

CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW ACT (CRA)

The only CRA news of the week was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introducing a resolution of disapproval against a Trump Administration Environmental Protection Agency rule. According to agency estimates, the rule in question would bring $1.4 billion in cost reductions. The American Action Forum (AAF) CRA tracker provides a full survey of activity under the law thus far into this term. As of today, members of the 119th Congress have introduced CRA resolutions of disapproval addressing 73 rulemakings across the Biden and Trump Administrations that collectively involve $135.7 billion in estimated compliance costs. Of these, 22 have been passed into law, repealing a series of Biden Administration rules that had a combined $3 billion in associated compliance costs. The Trump Administration estimates that the repeal of this rule yields an additional $936 million in savings. While the main window of CRA action has largely passed, there are still outstanding resolutions that could move legislatively. AAF will continue to monitor and update such developments as appropriate.

TOTAL BURDENS

Since the start of 2026, the federal government has published $1.1 billion in total regulatory net cost savings (with $8.1 billion in reductions from finalized rules) and 10.1 million hours of net annual paperwork increases (with 702,756 hours coming from final rules).