The federal government is at it again (obnoxious registration required for that link).

A nationwide mandate to make street signs larger for the aging U.S. population will mean thousands of new signs in North Texas cities and more than $1 million in costs for Fort Worth.

Tens of thousands of street signs—from 1st Avenue to Zwolle Street—will be replaced in coming years with signs that bear 6-inch letters to comply with new rules from the Federal Highway Administration.

Most North Texas cities will make the changes as they routinely replace aging street signs. But in Fort Worth, officials are being forced to revive a routine replacement program that had been scrapped to save money.

Over the next eight years, Fort Worth will spend $1.2 million to replace 15,000 street signs that have 4-inch letters, officials said.

I don’t doubt that replacing the signs is a good idea (even I have trouble with some of the tiny street signs around here).  However, I do question how this is any business of the federal government.  While the article isn’t completely clear on this point, it would appear that this was done through federal rule-making, rather than via any action by Congress.  It would seem to me that any action by the federal government that results in any kind of cost should have to go through a vote in Congress, rather than simply being introduced by a bunch of unelected bureaucrats.  This, of course, ignores the question of just which part of the constitution gives the federal government jurisdiction over street signs in the first place.