The Week in Regulation: May 31-June 3, 2011

A short but busy week for federal regulations drove total regulatory costs to $66.8 billion.  New Treasury rules and a pricey HHS proposed rule increased compliance costs significantly.  

Administrative agencies proposed 49 rules and implemented 80 final rules in four days, up from 77 last week.  The number of significant regulations increased by 10, and there have been 268 “significant” proposals this year; the federal government has now issued 32,312 pages of regulations in 2011.    

A final Treasury Department rule implements practices at the IRS and it arrives with a steep price tag.  The government estimates total compliance costs upwards of $142 million.  Recordkeeping and paperwork burdens alone for education providers and tax preparers are expected to eclipse $48.4 million.    

In addition to its heavy regulatory load, FCC has started to regulate the volume of television commercials.  Today, FCC released a proposed rule implementing the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM).  As an independent agency, FCC rarely evaluates potential costs, but the agency predicted at least $2.7 million in compliance burdens and more than 288,000 annual hours of reporting requirements for certain businesses.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also proposed a privacy rule that is expected to cost $20.2 million.   The proposal would “require covered entities and business associates to account for disclosures of protected health information to carry out treatment….”

There were two new Dodd-Frank rulemakings this week, including the first final rule from the controversial Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB).  The regulation merely sets out a list of rules and orders that CFPB will enforce and it contains no cost estimates.

The other Dodd-Frank proposal arrived from SEC and disqualifies securities offerings from felons and other “bad actors.”  According to the agency, “Our rules may impose costs on issuers and other market participants in terms of transactions foregone or effected by other means at a higher cost.”  No quantified cost estimate was provided.

Thus far, the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank remained at $866.1 million, but of the 123 major rulemakings, only 22 contain quantified cost estimates.

For the year the total cost of 377 proposed or enacted regulations is more than $66.8 billion, or roughly $624 million a day in compliance costs.  Click here for our database of the major regulations promulgated in 2011.