Regulators published more than $78 million in costs this week and 472,000 paperwork burden hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published the largest regulation, implementing the JOBS Act.               

Regulatory Toplines

• New Proposed Rules: 29
• New Final Rules: 43
• 2014 Significant Documents: 33
• 2014 Total Pages of Regulation: 4,264
• 2014 Proposed Rules: $216.7 Million
• 2014 Final Rules: $54.7 Million

The SEC led the week with a proposed rule that would add $31 million in costs and more than 320,000 paperwork burden hours. The ostensibly deregulatory measure offers additional exemptions for certain businesses under the Securities Act, but does impose reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed to end its infamous “Sports Blackout Rules” today and offers a 60-day comment period. The Commission notes that blackouts would not end entirely, rather the proposal would allow for “private solutions” and “eliminate unnecessary regulation.”  

Affordable Care Act

There were no notable health care rulemakings this week. Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated cost of $24.3 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $8 billion in costs to the states, and 132.9 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank

There were no notable Dodd-Frank rulemakings recently. Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage, the legislation has produced more than 58.1 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $17.7 billion in direct compliance costs. Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 30,303 employees to file federal paperwork.

A Note on Notices

There were 387 notices published this week. Regulators proposed nine new paperwork requirements, imposing 19,222 paperwork burden hours. None of these notices bothered to monetize the cost of completing paperwork.

There were two major changes to existing paperwork requirements (defined as an hourly burden increase or decrease of 500,000 or greater). These changes accounted for a net total increase of 114,768 burden hours. Regulators did not monetize these paperwork increases.

Total Burdens

Since January 1, the federal government has published $271 million in compliance costs and has imposed more than 1 million paperwork burden hours. Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2014.