As July turns into August, it seems that agencies have headed out for summer vacation. There were only two rulemakings with some kind of measurable economic impact. Nevertheless, one of those actions left a bit of a mark. The main rulemaking of the week came in the form of a proposed rule by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regarding aerosol dusters. Across all rulemakings, agencies published $2.7 billion in total costs but cut 76,441 annual paperwork burden hours.

REGULATORY TOPLINES

• Proposed Rules: 42
• Final Rules: 61
• 2024 Total Pages: 63,203
• 2024 Final Rule Costs: $1.25 trillion
• 2024 Proposed Rule Costs: $46.8 billion

NOTABLE REGULATORY ACTIONS

The most consequential action of week was the proposed rule from CPSC regarding “Banned Hazardous Substances: Aerosol Duster Products Containing More Than 18 mg in Any Combination of HFC-152a and/or HFC-134a.” As the title somewhat succinctly lays out, the proposal would “declare that any aerosol duster products that contain more than 18 mg in any combination of HFC-152a and/or HFC-134a are banned hazardous substances under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA).” CPSC estimates that that this will result in lifetime compliance costs of $2.77 billion across a 30-year horizon against $9.79 billion in benefits of avoided deaths and injuries.

TRACKING THE ADMINISTRATIONS

As we have already seen from executive orders and memos, the Biden Administration will surely provide plenty of contrasts with the Trump Administration on the regulatory front. And while there is a general expectation that the current administration will seek to broadly restore Obama-esque regulatory actions, there will also be areas where it charts its own course. Since the AAF RegRodeo data extend back to 2005, it is possible to provide weekly updates on how the top-level trends of President Biden’s regulatory record track with those of his two most recent predecessors. The following table provides the cumulative totals of final rules containing some quantified economic impact from each administration through this point in their respective terms.With the only recordable actions coming on the proposed rule side of the ledger last week, there was no movement in the Biden Administration’s final rule totals. For the other two administrations, there were some notable – albeit far from earth-shattering – developments. The Trump Administration saw costs increase by roughly $1 billion, due primarily to a rule from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The main shift under the Obama Administration came on the paperwork side, with a Department of Housing and Urban Development rule driving a nearly 2-million-hour increase.

TOTAL BURDENS

Since January 1, the federal government has published $1.29 trillion in total net costs (with $1.25 trillion in new costs from finalized rules) and 68.9 million hours of net annual paperwork burden increases (with 23.5 million hours coming from final rules).