Even in the face of Monday’s snow day, regulators found time to publish more than $4.5 billion in total costs and nearly 3 million paperwork burden hours. Total published rulemaking costs in 2014 are now well past $10 billion. Regulators did list roughly $2 billion in benefits. In addition, although not formally published, EPA released its final rule on Tier 3 fuel standards.

REGULATORY TOPLINES

• New Proposed Rules: 52
• New Final Rules: 84
• 2014 Significant Documents: 96
• 2014 Total Pages of Regulation: 13,166       
• 2014 Proposed Rules: $7 Billion
• 2014 Final Rules: $6 Billion

The most significant regulation was the administration’s proposed changes to nutrition labels.  The pair of rules has an “upside-down” cost-benefit analysis, with approximately $4 billion in potential costs against $2 billion in monetized benefits. Other notable rulemakings include an endangered species determination for jaguars and new standards for Department of Homeland Security detention centers.

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

There were no notable Affordable Care Act (ACA) rulemakings published this week. Although the administration did announce that it would delay the implementation of insurance requirements under the ACA until after the next presidential election and adjust the formula for risk corridors. This seemingly politically motivated action raises a series of substantive policy concerns.

Since passage, based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed an estimated cost of $24.2 billion in private-sector burdens, approximately $8 billion in costs to the states, and 130 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 398 total notices published this week. Regulators proposed 19 new paperwork requirements, imposing 54,722.3 new paperwork burden hours. None of these notices monetized the cost of completing paperwork, adding $0 to the overall compliance burden. There were no major changes to existing paperwork requirements (defined as an hourly burden increase or decrease of approximately 500,000 hours or greater).

TOTAL BURDENS

Since January 1, the federal government has published $13 billion in compliance costs and has imposed more than 16.2 million paperwork burden hours. Click here for our comprehensive database of regulations and rulemakings promulgated in 2014.