The Week in Regulation: June 18-22

The headline this week was the Department of Justice’s final prison reform rule, which will cost approximately $6.9 billion during implementation.  Paperwork burden hours also increased, largely as a result of an FCC rule imposing more than 215,000 hours.    

Administrative agencies proposed 56 rules and implemented 77 final rules.  Federal agencies issued 7 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly revised total to 358 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 37,750 pages of regulations in 2012.

The FCC rule merely announced that the Office of Management and Budget has approved the Commission’s paperwork request to implement the Connect America Fund.  The new burden will generate 215,500 annual hours of paperwork.  Using the median hourly wage for a “compliance officer,” the rule will cost approximately $6.6 million annually.

ObamaCare

There were no notable ObamaCare regulations this week.  Since passage, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $14.9 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $7 billion in costs to the states, and 58.9 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank

There were four Dodd-Frank rulemakings this week:  1) the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a “Policy Statement” on the public disclosure of credit card compliant data; 2) the Treasury Department issued a final rule to govern the “maximum obligation limitation,” which limits the obligations that “the FDIC may issue or incur in connection with the orderly liquidation of a covered financial company;” 3) the Comptroller of the Currency issued a final rule governing lending limits for national banks.

Finally, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) published the only Dodd-Frank rule that imposed burdens.  The regulation implements certain parts of Title VII of Dodd-Frank, core principles for designated contract markets.  The listed burdens, however, are limited: 1,260 hours and $65,000.

Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage the legislation has produced more than 52.7 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 26,352 employees to file federal paperwork.

Total Burdens

At the current pace, the published regulatory burden for 2012 will exceed $116 billion.  Since January 1, the federal government has imposed $55.7 billion in compliance costs and more than 108.3 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.