Week in Regulation

$12.9 Billion in Costs

After a slow week, regulators added more than $12.9 billion in total costs ($40 per person in the U.S.) and 355,000 paperwork burden hours. Annualized costs were $658 million, compared to $2 billion in benefits. A Department of Energy efficiency standard rule for electric motors led the week.    

Regulatory Toplines

  • New Proposed Rules: 45
  • New Final Rules: 62
  • 2014 Significant Documents: 249
  • 2014 Total Pages of Regulation: 31,204
  • 2014 Proposed Rules: $26.2 Billion
  • 2014 Final Rules: $40.7 Billion

AAF has catalogued regulations according to their codification in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The CFR is organized into 50 titles, with each title corresponding to an industry or part of government. This snapshot will help to determine which sectors of the economy receive the highest number of regulatory actions.

The Department of Energy standard for motors would impose $12.5 billion present value costs, or $517 million annually. AAF reviewed the rule here and noted the final version increased by more than $800 million compared to the proposed rule. California, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin are most affected by the new standards. The payback period for consumers, that is the time it takes for the efficiency savings to exceed higher initial costs, ranges from 3 to 4.5 years.

The administration also proposed a rule for durable medical equipment. The costs of the proposal are primarily because of requirements for additional documentation. The average annual paperwork burden over ten years is 304,000 hours, with annual costs of $14 million.   

Affordable Care Act

There were no notable ACA regulations this week. Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated cost of $27.5 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $8 billion in costs to the states, and 159.2 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank

There were no notable Dodd-Frank regulations this week. Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage, the legislation has produced more than 60.4 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $21.7 billion in direct compliance costs. Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 30,211 employees to file federal paperwork.

Total Burdens

Since January 1, the federal government has published $66.9 billion in compliance costs and has imposed more than 11.7 million in net paperwork burden hours. The administration is on pace to publish approximately $160 billion in costs this year. Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2014.

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