The Week in Regulation: October 17-21

A $451 million health care regulation and a Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) proposed rule on “Nonbank Financial Companies” highlighted another busy week in regulation.

Administrative agencies proposed 58 rules and implemented 67 final rules.  Federal agencies issued 10 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly total to 498 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 65,608 pages of regulations in 2011.

Though not formal in the Federal Register yet, the release of a final health care regulation governing accountable care organizations garnered plenty of press coverage yesterday.  The highlights: “ongoing annual operating costs of $451 million for CYs 2012 though 2015” but no paperwork burden estimates.

Apparently the President’s health care law exempted the regulation from any formal OMB paperwork review.  The previous proposed rule also failed to estimate paperwork burdens and it reported a much lower cost, $263 million.

Since passage, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $8.9 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $2.2 billion in costs to the states, and 29.1 million annual paperwork hours.

FSOC began implementation of Section 133 of Dodd-Frank this week.  The Federal Reserve will supervise certain nonbank financial companies and “be subject to prudential standards in accordance with Title I of Dodd-Frank.”  The Federal Reserve will determine whether these companies “could pose a threat to the financial stability of the United States.”

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 25.1 million new paperwork burden hours. 

Finally, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took the prize for proposing the highest number of paperwork burden hours this week.  FCC’s proposal for disbursing money from the Universal Services Fund will require more than 61,000 hours of compliance.

At the current pace, the total regulatory burden for 2011 (proposed and final) will exceed $100 billion.  Since January 1, the federal government has imposed more than 89 million annual paperwork burden hours and $81.3 billion in compliance costs. 

Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2011.