Regulatory activity was at a near standstill during the holiday week. Regulators added $46 million in published burdens, $121 million in benefits, and more than 1.9 million paperwork burden hours. A final rule on occupant crash protection and a tax measure implementing the Affordable Care Act led the week.

Regulatory Toplines

● New Proposed Rules: 36
● New Final Rules: 77
● 2013 Significant Documents: 583
● 2013 Total Pages of Regulation: 71,986
● 2013 Proposed Rules: $73.5 Billion
● 2013 Final Rules: $22.7 Billion

AAF has catalogued regulations according to their likely 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 tool will help to determine which sectors of the economy receive the highest number of regulatory actions.

Regulation by Industry in 2013

CFR Title-Industry	Regulations	Cost (in millions)	Hours
7-Agriculture	14	$325	32,582,258
8-Aliens and Nationality	2	$719	749,669
9-Animals	5	$41	-36
10-Energy	9	$22,846	42,560
12-Banking	42	$888	3,286,286
13-Business Assistance	1	$-0.7	-26,402
14-Aeronautics	259	$1,778	10,138
15-Commerce, Trade	4		82,697
16-Commerical Practices	6	$231	3,254,547
17-Commodities, Securities	27	$2,981	5,934,907
18-Conservation	12	$98	2,627,492
20-Employees' Benefits	4	$351	527,826
21-Food and Drugs	18	$14,609	11,427,474
22-Foreign Relations	6		-234,680
23-Highways	2	$5	36,968
24-Housing	12	$8	2,057,882
26-Internal Revenue	13		8,997,460
27-ATF	1	$13	446,638
28-Judicial Administration	1
29-Labor	10	$7,027	3,218,645
30-Mineral Resources	4	$56	688,886
31-Treasury	3		17,364
33-Navigable Waters	4	$448	43,426
34-Education	4	$-148	-3,046,597
36-Parks and Forests	2	$1,088	925
37-Patents, Copyright	2	$931	779,960
38-Veterans' Relief	2		40,981
40-Environment	31	$38,726	9,653,488
41-Public Contracts	2	$1,865	13,362,497
42-Public Health	22	$-1,167	11,227,138
43-Interior	2	$166	32,904
45-Public Welfare	13	$920	5,087,282
46-Shipping	2	$-0.03	11,416
47-Telecommunication	19	$40	3,081,985
48-Federal Acquisition	4	$0.4	289,917
49-Transportation	21	$-1,516	-46,932,537
50-Wildlife and Fisheries	2	$0.8
Multiple Titles	11	$2,443	-208,432

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a final rule requiring “lap/shoulder seat belts” for passengers in buses. The measure implements the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act of 2012 and will impose total costs of $8.6 million, while generating $121 million in benefits. The agency estimates the cost to comply for each bus at approximately $2,100, which would prevent up to 9.2 fatalities.

Affordable Care Act

The IRS published its final rule imposing a higher Medicare Tax under the Affordable Care Act. The regulation estimates a compliance time of 1.9 million paperwork burden hours.

Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated cost of $23.7 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $8.5 billion in costs to the states, and 127 million annual paperwork hours.

Dodd-Frank

There were no notable Dodd-Frank rulemakings this week imposing costs or burden hours. Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage, the legislation has produced more than 62.1 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $16.4 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.

Total Burdens

Since January 1, the federal government has published $96.3 billion in compliance costs and 71.5 million annual paperwork burden hours. In other words, regulators have added $420 million in costs per day. Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2013.