Regulator’s mount up, it’s midnight

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Everybody got choices

6 min readJul 19, 2016

Midnight regulations are special interest taking what’s “theirs”

What happens between the election night and inauguration in D.C.? Not much you’d think. But, you’d be wrong. Regulations happen, and they’re called midnight regulations, hence my choice of the song Regulate by Warren G. feat. Nate Dogg (RIP) to explain this phenomenon.

In this ballad, the Government is Nate Dog (R.I.P.) and special interest is Warren G. I say this because of the beginning of the song Warren G. says:

So I hooks a left on the 21 and Lewis
some brothas shootin dice so I said “Let’s do this”
I jumped out the ride, and said “What’s up?”
some brothas pulled some gats so I said “I’m stuck.”

He’s just looking to have a little fun and maybe win some money shootin’ dice. But Warren G. is in trouble and the clock is about to strike midnight for our Cinderella story, but wait:

They got guns to my head
I think I’m going down
I can’t believe this happenin in my own town
If I had wings I could fly
let me contemplate
I glanced in the cut and I see my homey Nate
Sixteen in the clip and one in the hole
Nate Dogg is about to make some bodies turn cold
now they droppin and yellin
it’s a tad bit late
Nate Dogg and Warren G had to regulate

You see how Nate Dogg stepped in at the last minute to save his friend? Then they turned around and had to regulate? This is exactly what happens at the end of every Presidential term (Blue, Purple, or Red) it’s referred to as midnight regulations.

What are midnight regulations? According to the all-mighty Wikipedia it is: a term for United States federal government regulations created by executive branch agencies in the lame duck period of an outgoing President’s administration. In sum, everything the President couldn't do in during his term he tries to do then. He can circumvent the process of democracy through enacting these midnight regulations during the time between the Election Night and Inauguration.

This list of potential midnight regulations (also listed below) contains all economically significant rules. This means all rules with an impact on the economy exceeding $100 million and (for dramatic effect) that were proposed by executive branch agencies after President Obama was inaugurated, but have not yet been finalized. The list refers only to “prescriptive” regulations that impose mandates or prohibitions; it omits budget regulations that implement federal spending or revenue collection programs.

Tell me someone doesn’t have some $$$ on the line when it comes to these regulations? For this list, at least $100 million. Granted some have decent intent, but intent doesn’t matter — results do. And this is where special interest comes in. Because it’s all about the Benjamin's, and when it makes sense to regulate your competitor out of business because you know the President, or someone on his cabinet. But why is this happening, don’t we have checks and balances in this system?

Not exactly, The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has been entrusted with the task of examining the quality of regulatory analysis that accompanies each new proposed regulation. But with dramatic staff cuts since 1981, there has been an increase in midnight regulations. Particularly when the presidential parties are switched. Because there are only so many people at OIRA, it is nearly impossible to go through all the proposed legislation during a midnight regulation period (between Election Day and Inauguration day day).

So we’ve cut the number of full time OIRA workers in half, but the number of regulations has increased since 1981, I feel like something is wrong with that statement. Like it’s the exact opposite of what you should do. Granted things like the internet and computers have probably caused the most losses for OIRA, but it doesn’t make the regulations any less difficult to read, by god Lawyers are writing these things.

When it’s the final term of a presidency, watch out, Warren G.said it best:

we regulate any stealing of his property
and we damn good too
But you can’t be any geek off the street,
gotta be handy with the steel if you know what I mean, earn your keep!
REGULATORS!!! MOUNT UP!

This lame duck session, “REGULATORS!!!! STAY HOME!” because we know you aren’t any geek off the street, you’re cold blooded regulators.