Week in Regulation: May 7-11
President Obama signed yet another Executive Order directing agencies to review unnecessarily burdensome regulations. Nonetheless, a series of ObamaCare rulemakings and the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed rule on fracking added more than $6 billion in regulatory costs and roughly 7 million more hours of paperwork.
Administrative agencies proposed 35 rules and implemented 62 final rules. Federal agencies issued 11 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly revised total to 286 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 28,235 pages of regulations in 2012.
BLM published its proposed standards for fracking wells on federal and Indian lands. The rule requires drilling companies to disclose chemicals used in the process. BLM estimates that compliance costs could exceed $376 million during the next decade. Click here to see the American Action Forum’s “Regulation Review” of the proposal.
ObamaCare
There were three significant regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) this week. One imposed steep costs, and another created millions of hours in new paperwork.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized its rule on the “Community First Choice” program. The program establishes “a new State plan option to provide home and community-based attendant services.” Total Medicaid costs to the States: approximately $5.7 billion. That marks an increase of more than half a billion dollars from the proposed version.
CMS also proposed another set of ObamaCare’s adjustments to Medicare payment systems. These adjustments will result in nearly 6.3 million annual paperwork burden hours for the nation’s healthcare providers.
Since passage, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $14.9 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $7.1 billion in costs to the states, and 58.5 million annual paperwork hours.
Dodd-Frank
There was one Dodd-Frank regulation this week. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed an “Interpretive Statement” on the confidentiality of swap data depository information. The proposed rule did not include any costs or paperwork burdens.
Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage the legislation has produced more than 52.9 million paperwork burden hours. Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 26,450 employees to file federal paperwork.
Total Burdens
At the current pace, the published regulatory burden for 2012 will exceed $134 billion. Since January 1, the federal government has imposed $49.3 billion in compliance costs and more than 114 million annual paperwork burden hours.
Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2012.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| PPACA Database | 45.15 KB |
| 2012 Regulation Database | 189.08 KB |
| Dodd-Frank Database | 92.53 KB |
The Week Ahead For Regulations
Congress is back in town. Mark those calendars for Wednesday, May 9, when numerous House committees look to tackle regulatory issues. On the administrative side, there is currently little in the Federal Register’s pre-publication section, but there is plenty of activity at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
In Congress:
- The Energy and Power Subcommittee (under Energy and Commerce) will hold a hearing on two bills: the “Resolving Environmental and Grid Reliability Conflicts Act of 2012” and the "Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2012."
- The Natural Resources Committee will convene a hearing on "Evaluating President Obama’s Offshore Drilling Plan and Impacts on Our Future.” The key witness is Tommy Beaudreau, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
- The Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee (under Financial Services) will meet on “Rising Regulatory Compliance Costs and Their Impact on the Health of Small Financial Institutions.” Dodd-Frank implementation alone now stands for nearly 53 million paperwork burden hours.
At OIRA:
- OIRA recently completed its review (mandated by Executive Order 12,866) of two rulemakings. The first is an economically significant regulation from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on “Electronic Stability Control Systems for Heavy Vehicles.” According to the Unified Agenda entry, the rule could cost $107 million per year.
- The second from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): “Permitting Guidance for Oil and Gas Hydraulic Fracturing Activities Using Diesel Fuels –Draft.” According to OIRA’s site, this entry is not published in the Unified Agenda. It follows two other recent rules on fracking from the EPA and the Department of Interior.
- OIRA has started review of EPA’s proposed amendments to its Portland cement emissions rule. The original rule was published in September 2010. Facing numerous “petitions to reconsider” last year, EPA delayed implementation and is now seeking to include these amendments.
The Week in Regulation: April 30 to May 4
A proposed health care rule that could impose more than $580 million in state Medicaid spending pushed 2012 costs past $43 billion. In addition, the FCC’s “Lifeline and Link Up Reform” added more than 21 million paperwork burden hours.
Administrative agencies proposed 43 rules and implemented 70 final rules. Federal agencies issued 11 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly revised total to 268 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 26,658 pages of regulations in 2012.
The FCC publication was merely a White House approval of its massive new paperwork burden request. According to the most recent data, the previously approved paperwork burden was a mere 61,000 hours. The new FCC burden for “Link Up Reform” requests more than 22.1 million hours of compliance.
However, neither FCC nor the White House provided a corresponding monetary cost for the collection. Assuming a mean “compliance officer” burden of $30.66 per hour (according to BLS), the actual cost of the rulemaking is $647 million.
The EPA was also busy this week, publishing a final rule to implement amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. The rule requires listing certain unregulated contaminants and monitoring requirements. The costs: $44 million and 122,000 paperwork hours.
ObamaCare
The administration proposed another rule to implement Medicaid changes from Affordable Care Act. The proposal is designed to provide “necessary and appropriate services to elderly and disabled populations” by implementing State Plan Home and Community-Based Services. The regulation estimates $580 million in state Medicaid spending as a result.
Since passage, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $14.9 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $2.9 billion in costs to the states, and 52.3 million annual paperwork hours.
Dodd-Frank
There were no notable Dodd-Frank rulemakings this week. Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage the legislation has produced more than 52.9 million paperwork burden hours. Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 26,450 employees to file federal paperwork.
Total Burdens
At the current pace, the published regulatory burden for 2012 will exceed $118 billion. Since January 1, the federal government has imposed $43.1 billion in compliance costs and more than 107 million annual paperwork burden hours. For comparison, it took 7 million hours to build the Empire State Building.
Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2012.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 2012 Regulation Database | 179.95 KB |
| PPACA Database | 44.09 KB |
| Dodd-Frank Database | 92.16 KB |
Regulation Review: Interior’s Fracking Rules
Following quickly after the EPA issued final clean air fracking rules, the Obama Administration issued their second fracking regulation today, from the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This proposed rule applies to federal and Native American lands. BLM estimates about “99 percent of the entities operating in the relevant sectors are small businesses in that they employ fewer than 500 employees.”
Cost Breakdown
- $44 million in annual costs, with possible net costs of $30 million; costs could exceed benefits by more than 5:1 in some scenarios
- Total ten-year costs: $376.8 million, with the highest costs in 2013
- Likely cost per well: $11,833
- 28,560 paperwork burden hours
Analysis
According to Secretary Ken Salazar, this regulation has three elements:
1) Disclosure of fracking fluids, no later than 30 days after use; there are provisions to protect trade secrets and confidential business information,
2) Well-bore integrity to prevent leaks of fluids; requires drillers to ensure cement adheres correctly; drillers would need to conduct integrity tests, and
3) Water monitoring program to prevent groundwater pollution and hydrocarbon leaks.
On employment, BLM estimates that drilling companies would need to hire 15 to 18 additional employees for administrative and operational compliance in the next three years. Despite the added costs, BLM believes, “operators would not likely reduce investment.”
BLM anticipates that the rule will be finalized by the end of 2012.
