The Week in Regulation: October 31 to November 4

A final Accountable Care Organization rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pushed regulatory costs higher once again this week.  Several Dodd-Frank rulemakings and the lack of any deregulatory activity drove costs to $85.2 billion for the year.   

Administrative agencies proposed 41 rules and implemented 93 final rules.  Federal agencies issued 18 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly total to 526 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 68,624 pages of regulations in 2011.

CMS’s final Accountable Care Organization rule hit the Federal Register this week, with an estimated cost burden of $451 million.  The final rule lacked a formal Paperwork Reduction Act analysis because the Affordable Care Act explicitly excluded the rule from any paperwork analysis.  In total, the final rule imposed $188 million in additional costs over the baseline from the proposed rule.

Since passage, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $9.1 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $2.2 billion in costs to the states, and 29.1 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank registered three rulemakings this week from three separate agencies.  OSHA issued a final rule implementing sections 922 and 929A of Dodd-Frank regarding whistleblower claims.  The Department of Energy issued a proposed rule to modify “regulatory provisions to remove provisions that would require applications or sponsors to provide a credit rating or other credit assessment to [the Department of Energy].”

In addition, FDIC and the Federal Reserve published their final rule on “Resolution Plans” for enhanced supervision of nonbank financial companies with assets of $50 billion or more.  Covered companies will need plans for “orderly resolution in the event of material financial distress or failure.”  The final rule imposed more than 855,000 compliance hours, compared to just 291,486 for the initial proposal.

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 25.7 million new paperwork burden hours. 

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 88.8 million annual paperwork burden hours and $85.2 billion in compliance costs. 

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