This week regulators published $2.3 billion in regulatory costs, including more than two million paperwork burden hours; annualized costs were $279 million and annual benefits were $269 million. Regulations establishing drug and alcohol clearinghouses, and new standards for helicopter safety led the week.                               

Regulatory Toplines

• New Proposed Rules: 29
• New Final Rules: 35
• 2014 Significant Documents: 66
• 2014 Total Pages of Regulation: 9,980
• 2014 Proposed Rules: $2.9 Billion
• 2014 Final Rules: $5.5 Billion

The FAA finalized a rule to improve safety on helicopters, including air ambulances. It requires additional equipment, including life preservers, and further pilot testing. For example, air ambulances will be required to install “terrain awareness and warning systems,” to prevent accidents. FAA estimates the rule will cost $311 million during the next ten years and provide $821 million in benefits.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed a measure to establish a drug and alcohol database for the holders of commercial driver’s licenses. The proposal would impose more than $1.6 billion in long-term costs and add more than 1.8 million paperwork burden hours.     

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 this week. Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage, the legislation has produced more than 60.4 million paperwork burden hours and imposed $17.8 billion in direct compliance costs. Based on calculations from the Financial Services Roundtable, Dodd-Frank regulations would require 30,211 employees to file federal paperwork.

A Note on Notices

There were 316 notices published this week. Regulators proposed 10 new paperwork requirements, imposing 834,741 paperwork burden hours. Three of these notices monetized the cost of completing paperwork, adding a total of $214,635 to the overall compliance burden.

There was one major change to existing paperwork requirements (defined as an hourly burden increase or decrease of 500,000 or greater). This change accounted for a net total decrease of 504,667 burden hours. Regulators did not monetize this decrease.

Total Burdens

Since January 1, the federal government has published $8.4 billion in compliance costs and has imposed more than 15.3 million paperwork burden hours. Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2014.