Net Neutrality is now the law of the land.  With publication of the final rule in the Federal Register, the nine-month-old regulation headlined an $82.2 million week, with more than 973,000 proposed or final paperwork burden hours.

Administrative agencies proposed 48 rules and implemented 76 final rules.  Federal agencies issued 6 new documents “deemed significant under [Executive Order] 12866,” bringing the yearly total to 449 according to the Federal Register; the federal government has issued 59,236 pages of regulations in 2011.

The final Net Neutrality rule lacked a formal cost estimate and any consideration of the impact of the regulation on employment, despite the President’s desire to create jobs through regulation.  Previous Information Collection Requirements submitted to the Office of Management and Budget reveal a new paperwork burden of 47,503 hours, at a projected cost of $511,000.  

Dodd-Frank implementation ticked up during the week as well.  FDIC published an interim final rule with a comment period.  The rule establishes “Resolution Plans [Living Wills] for Insured Depositary Institutions With $50 Billion or More in Total Assets.”  All covered institutions are required to submit Resolution Plans to FDIC; the projected paperwork burden is 291,486.

Click here to view the total estimated compliance costs from Dodd-Frank; since passage the legislation has produced (in proposed and enacted rules) more than 25.1 million new paperwork burden hours. 

There were no major Affordable Care Act regulations this week.  Since passage, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated $8.2 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $2.2 billion in costs to the states, and 27.1 million annual paperwork hours.

At the current pace, the total regulatory burden for 2011 (proposed and final) will exceed $106 billion.  Since January 1, the federal government has imposed more than 81.7 million annual paperwork burden hours and $79.5 billion in compliance costs. 

Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2011.