Regulators returned to regulating this week, imposing $218 million in annualized costs, compared to $80 million in benefits, and more than 800,000 paperwork burden hours. A final Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule on Statistical Rating Organizations and an energy conservation proposal for air conditioners led the week.             

Regulatory Toplines

• New Proposed Rules: 50
• New Final Rules: 72
• 2014 Significant Documents: 462
• 2014 Total Pages of Regulation: 56,476
• 2014 Proposed Rules: $57.1 Billion
• 2014 Final Rules: $69.3 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 a conservation standards rule for terminal air conditioners, with total costs eclipsing $170 million. AAF reviewed the regulation here and found that it would significantly affect small businesses. In addition, DOE estimates consumer price increases of between $17 and $23 per unit.

The Federal Aviation Administration proposed a significant deregulatory measure, proposing to “eliminate redundant requirements and paperwork requirements that are not necessary for aviation safety.” The proposal would discontinue an entire paperwork collection, saving more than 160,000 burden hours; it would also reduce industry costs by $3 million annually.

Affordable Care Act

Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed a cost of $27.5 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $11.7 billion in costs to the states, and 162.1 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank

The SEC finalized a rule amending requirements for credit rating agencies under Dodd-Frank. The 238-page regulation would impose annualized costs of $196 million and add more than 725,000 paperwork burden hours. A majority of these monetized burdens are paperwork-related, according to the rule.  

Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage, the legislation has produced more than 61.3 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $24.1 billion in direct compliance costs. Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 30,699 employees to file federal paperwork.

Total Burdens

Since January 1, the federal government has published $126.4 billion in compliance costs and has imposed 25 million in net paperwork burden hours. Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2014.