Regulatory burdens took off for the first time in 2015, with more than $14 billion in total costs. Regulators also added 289,000 paperwork burden hours and $1.4 billion in annual benefits. Two energy efficiency rules led the week.

Regulatory Toplines

• New Proposed Rules: 40
• New Final Rules: 77
• 2015 Significant Documents: 44
• 2015 Total Pages of Regulation: 5,450
• 2015 Proposed Rules: $392 Million
• 2015 Final Rules: $14.2 Billion

The Department of Energy published the first of what will likely be a rash of major efficiency rules. The latest two rules, standards for icemakers and fluorescent lamps would add close to $900 million in annual burdens. AAF reviewed both final rules here. For consumers, this means the cost of a typical lamp would double, from $6 to almost $12.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposal to increase protections against uranium exposure. The measure would regulate byproducts of “uranium in-situ recovery” (ISR) by ensuring groundwater protection, restoration, and stability. EPA expects costs of approximately $13.5 million for the six ISR facilities.

Affordable Care Act

Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed costs of $41.3 billion in state and private-sector burdens and 163.6 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank

Click here to view the total estimated revised costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage, the legislation has produced more than 63.7 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $32.9 billion in direct compliance costs. Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 31,940 employees to file federal paperwork.

A Note on Paperwork

There were 525 notices published in the Federal Register this week. The Office of Management and Budget approved 99 paperwork requirements, increasing the paperwork burden hours by 4.5 million hours. 

There was one major change to existing paperwork requirements (defined as an hourly burden increase or decrease of 500,000 or greater). The largest increase in paperwork burden hours imposed by an information collection requirement (ICR) was 3.7 million hours from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The largest decrease in paperwork burden hours imposed by an ICR was 257,055 hours from the Facility Registry Services (FRS).

Total Burdens

Since January 1, the federal government has published $14.6 billion in compliance costs and has added 590,565 paperwork burden hours. Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2015.