Week in Regulation
December 2, 2013
A Slow Holiday Week for Regulation
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.
