Regulators added more than $1.8 billion in total burdens this week. Annualized costs were $772 million, compared to $218 million in benefits, and more than 30,000 new paperwork burden hours. A dual pair of energy efficiency standards and health care proposals led the week.                     

Regulatory Toplines

• New Proposed Rules: 54
• New Final Rules: 68
• 2015 Significant Documents: 869
• 2015 Total Pages of Regulation: 18,304
• 2015 Proposed Rules: $17.6 Billion
• 2015 Final Rules: $16.1 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 (DOE) proposed efficiency standards for residential boilers and pumps. Neither rule is economically significant, with annual costs of $42 million and $73 million. In both instances, benefits exceed costs, but net present value costs for the rules eclipse $800 million.

Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed rules governing health information technology and electronic health records. The combined annual cost of the measures totals more than $550 million. The electronic health records proposal would, according to HHS’s analysis, reduce worker productivity and increase recordkeeping and reporting costs.  

Affordable Care Act

Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed costs of $43.8 billion in state and private-sector burdens and 163.5 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 65.6 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $33.3 billion in direct compliance costs. Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 32,826 employees to file federal paperwork.

A Note on Paperwork

This week federal agencies published 521 notices. The Office of Management and Budget approved 97 paperwork requirements, increasing the total paperwork burden by 222,268 hours.

There were no major changes in paperwork burdens, which is defined as an hourly burden increase or decrease of 500,000 hours or greater. The Department of Transportation imposed an information collection requirement (ICR) that adds 267,401 hours, while the Rural Housing Service cut 245,145 hours from an existing ICR.

Total Burdens

Since January 1, the federal government has published $33.7 billion in compliance costs and has imposed 16.1 million in net paperwork burden hours. Click here for our new comprehensive database of rulemakings promulgated from 2008 to 2015.