The Week in Regulation: November 19-23

Mon, 2012-11-26 10:09 | Regulation | Sam Batkins
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Two Dodd-Frank regulations and a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposal implementing incentive auctions highlighted another week in regulation.  The regulatory pace appears to have increased, with regulators adding more than $400 million in costs and close to one million paperwork burden hours.    

Regulatory Toplines

  • New Proposed Rules: 24
  • New Final Rules: 39
  • 2012 Significant Documents: 546
  • 2012 Total Pages of Regulation: 70,354
  • 2012 Proposed Rules: $16.6 billion
  • 2012 Final Rules: $215.4 billion

The FCC published a lengthy proposed rule to expand “Economic and Innovation Opportunities of Spectrum Through Incentive Auctions.”  The Commission’s initial paperwork analysis estimates close to 200,000 paperwork burden hours and $164 million in costs.

ObamaCare

There were no notable Affordable Care Act regulations this week.  Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $20.4 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $7.2 billion in costs to the states, and 62.8 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank

There were two notable Dodd-Frank regulations this week.  The SEC published a final rule for “Purchase of Certain Debt Securities by Business.”  This regulation imposes no costs or paperwork hours.

The SEC also published a proposed rule for “Capital, Margin, and Segregation Requirements.”  SEC estimates approximately 155 security-based swap dealers will be affected.  In addition, SEC calculates costs at more than $200 million, with 771,050 compliance hours.

Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage the legislation has produced more than 59.4 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $15.2 billion in direct compliance costs.  Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 29,355 employees to file federal paperwork.

A Note on Notices

This week federal agencies published 411 notices.  In these notices, agencies typically request new or revised paperwork burdens from the Office of Management and Budget.  These notices are generally not final, merely requests with a comment period.

Agencies requested 26.3 million paperwork burden hours, the equivalent of forcing 13,163 employees into red tape compliance.  The associated costs of these burdens: $47.3 million, or $1.79 per hour.

Total Burdens

At the current pace, the published regulatory burden for 2012 will exceed $256 billion.  Since January 1, the federal government has imposed $232.1 billion in compliance costs, more than the 2011 total, and 135.6 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.