MODEST DEREGULATORY PROPOSALS ABOUND

Dan Goldbeck  May 29, 2018

If crane safety, student aid, or international arms sales interest you, then there was something for you in the regulatory world last week. Proposed deregulatory actions affecting each of those areas led an otherwise forgettable week. Between both proposed and final rules, agencies published roughly $24.7 million in net cost savings and 137,680 hours of paperwork cuts. The per capita regulatory burden for 2018 is negative $14.54.

REGULATORY TOPLINES

• New Proposed Rules: 53
• New Final Rules: 68
• 2018 Total Pages of Regulation: 24,174
• 2018 Final Rules: -$4.8 Billion
• 2018 Proposed Rules: $9.1 Billion

TRACKING REGULATORY MODERNIZATION

There was a handful of nominal deregulatory actions this past week. The most notable was an Occupational Health and Safety Administration proposal to revise certain crane operator safety measures that results in roughly $2.2 million in net annual savings. The next highest was a pair of linked rulemakings from the Departments of Commerce and State that streamline paperwork requirements in international arms sales to produce $2.8 million in cost savings from 5,620 fewer hours of paperwork (that the agencies split 50/50). And finally, the Department of Education proposed to delay the effective date of a 2016 rule on “Program Integrity and Improvement” until July 1, 2020. This would save affected entities roughly $700,000 annually. However, these are all proposed rules and thus do not yet count towards the regulatory budget established under Executive Order (EO) 13,771.

According to AAF analysis, since the start of FY 2018 (beginning Oct. 1, 2017), executive agencies have promulgated 37 deregulatory actions with quantified cost savings against five regulatory measures that impose costs, under the rubric created by EO 13,771 and the administration’s subsequent guidance document on the matter. These rules combine for net annual savings of roughly $1.2 billion. This means that agencies have thus far surpassed the administration’s cumulative goal for FY 2018 of $687 million in net annual savings. In fact, according to the administration’s latest Unified Agenda, agencies are on track to roughly double that goal.

Click here to view AAF’s examination of the administration’s progress under the “one-in, two-out” executive order through the end of Fiscal Year 2017.

STATE OF MAJOR OBAMA-ERA INITIATIVES

Based on total lifetime costs of the regulations, the Affordable Care Act has imposed costs of $52.9 billion in final state and private-sector burdens and 176.9 million annual paperwork hours.

Since passage, the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation has produced more than 82.9 million final paperwork burden hours and imposed $38.9 billion in direct compliance costs.

TOTAL BURDENS

Since January 1, the federal government has published $4.3 billion in net costs (despite $4.8 billion in net savings from final rules) and new paperwork burdens amounting to 2.7 million hours (however, this includes 473,636 hours cut under final rules). Click here for the latest Reg Rodeo findings.

Disclaimer

https://www.americanactionforum.org/week-in-regulation/modest-deregulatory-proposals-abound/?utm_source=American+Action+Forum+Emails&utm_campaign=04395fc369-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_30_08_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_64783a8335-04395fc369-267125721
Follow us: @AAF on Twitter