The Week in Regulation: January 17-20

A slow week in regulation was marked by just one Dodd-Frank final rule and a perfunctory rulemaking under the Affordable Care Act.  Regulators published $135.8 million in cost burdens during the four-day week.  

Administrative agencies proposed 43 rules and implemented 30 final rules.  Federal agencies issued 5 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly revised total to 28 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 3,068 pages of regulations in 2012. 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) produced the largest final rule of the week.  The “Registration of Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants” is estimated to cost $45 million and would impose 629 burden hours.  The rule is effective March 19, 2012.

Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage the legislation has produced (in proposed and enacted rules) more than 49 million new paperwork burden hours.  Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 24,503 employees to file federal paperwork. 

The Affordable Care Act also produced a rule from the Social Security Administration, which would not impose costs or paperwork burdens.  The final rule adopts an interim regulation, published in 2010, regarding eligibility for Medicare prescription drug subsidies.  

Since passage, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $9.2 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $2.2 billion in costs to the states, and 30.3 million annual paperwork hours.

At the current pace, the total regulatory burden for 2012 (proposed or final) will exceed $76.5 billion.  Since January 1, the federal government has imposed more than 23 million annual paperwork burden hours and $4.4 billion in compliance costs.  Projecting a 2,000 hour work year, paperwork requirements alone would force 11,540 employees to comply with federal compliance burdens.  

Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2012.