The Week in Regulation: January 9-13

Two Dodd-Frank final rules alone added more than $3.7 billion in regulatory burdens this week.  The regulation for swap data recording produced 19.3 million paperwork burden hours, making it one of the costliest rules of all time.

Administrative agencies proposed 29 rules and implemented 56 final rules.  Federal agencies issued 14 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly revised total to 23 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 2,224 pages of regulations in 2012. 

In addition to CFTC finalizing three more Dodd-Frank rules, it formally published final rules for real-time reporting of swaps and swap data recordkeeping.

The swap data rule regulates more than 30,000 entities and imposes a cumulative paperwork burden of 19.35 million hours, along with $3.59 billion in compliance costs.  To put the paperwork burden in perspective, assuming a 2,000 hour work year, it would take 9,675 employees dedicated solely to complying with the rule.

CFTC began the week with its real-time reporting rule, which adds more than 500,000 burden hours and $150 million in costs.  The rule established a framework for the reporting of all swap transactions, including pricing data.

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.  Direct compliance costs now top $7.2 billion.

The Affordable Care Act also produced a rule with significant cost and paperwork burdens.  The interim final rule implements section 1104 of the Act requiring standards for electronic fund transfers.  The regulation, which would primarily affect hospitals and providers, would impose 2.88 million paperwork burden hours.   

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 $111.2 billion.  Since January 1, the federal government has imposed more than 23 million annual paperwork burden hours and $4.2 billion in compliance costs.  Projecting a 2,000 hour work year, paperwork requirements alone would force 11,539 employees to comply with federal compliance burdens.   

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

On a procedural note, the Regulation Database has been tweaked to ease the tracking of significant rulemakings.  A new Regulation Identification Number (RIN) section has been included.  In addition, a “Net Change” category follows the cost sections to track the increase or decrease in burdens from proposed and final rules.