The Week in Regulation: July 9-13

Regulatory costs accelerated more than tenfold over last week, with Dodd-Frank rules and an FDA proposal that added $588 million.  In addition, the administration published more than 2.8 million in new paperwork burdens this week.

Federal agencies proposed 51 rules and implemented 84 final rules.  Federal agencies issued 12 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly revised total to 385 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 41,662 pages of regulations in 2012.

FDA’s Unique Device Identification System proposal requires device manufacturers to include a label on each medical device.  The regulation costs $558 million over its lifetime and adds more than 1.2 million paperwork burden hours.  There is no timetable for the release of the final rule but this proposal is more than six months overdue according to the Unified Agenda.

There were two additional paperwork drivers this week.  FCC published its final rule implementing the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, with the aim of reducing the volume on television commercials.  The regulation imposes more than 288,000 paperwork hours.  In addition, EPA published a final rule for Hazardous Chemical reporting, adding 394,000 hours.     

ObamaCare

There were two Affordable Care Act rulemakings this week.  CMS released two proposed rules for Medicare changes under ObamaCare.  A proposal for “Home Health Prospective Payment” would add $8 million in costs for some states.  CMS also released a regulation for “End-Stage Renal Disease,” which would add $15 million and more than 372,000 paperwork hours.   

Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $17.1 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $7.2 billion in costs to the states, and 59.2 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank

There were three Dodd-Frank rulemakings this week, but only two contained quantified costs.  CFTC released a proposed rule for “temporary exemptive relief in order to allow non-U.S. swap dealers and non-U.S. major swap participants to delay compliance” with certain regulations.  This order would add $3 million in costs.  

SEC issued a final rule for reviewing “any security-based swap, or any group, category, type or class of security-based swaps.”  The regulation adds $8.6 million in costs and 466,351 paperwork burden hours.

Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage the legislation has produced more than 53 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $7 billion in direct compliance costs.  Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 26,500 employees to file federal paperwork.

Total Burdens

At the current pace, the published regulatory burden for 2012 will exceed $105 billion.  Since January 1, the federal government has imposed $56.6 billion in compliance costs and more than 114.1 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.