Dan Goldbeck, Dan Bosch April 13, 2020
The two most significant rules in the Federal
Register from last week were, unsurprisingly, expedited measures aiming to
address certain economic and health issues presented by the ongoing COVID-19
crisis. Beyond that pair of rulemakings, however, it was a relatively mundane
week. Across all rulemakings, agencies published $258.6 million in total net
costs and added 820,627 hours of annual paperwork.
REGULATORY TOPLINES
·
2020 Proposed Rules: 41
·
2020 Final Rules: 66
·
2020 Total Pages: 20,355
·
2020 Final Rule Costs:
$4.8 billion
·
2020 Proposed Rule
Costs: $3 billion
The two big COVID-19 rules of the week came from
the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Health and Human Services (HHS). DOL’s rule implements
the temporary paid leave program established under the
“Families First Coronavirus Response Act.” While the program is “time-limited”
by the underlying statute, DOL estimates that it will bring more than half a
billion dollars in administrative costs. Given its temporary nature and
attachment to an emergency situation, these costs do not apply to the fiscal
year (FY) 2020 regulatory budget; in fact, there is no mention of Executive
Order 13,771 (the order establishing the regulatory budget).
The other significant rule of the week, out of
HHS, is actually a cost-cutter. The rule, addressing “Policy and Regulatory
Revisions in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency,” makes myriad
changes in light of the ongoing pandemic. The rulemaking’s main source of cost
reductions comes from updating the requirements surrounding the recording of
“progress notes” for psychiatric hospital patients. The existing language
dictated that only “physician(s), psychologists, or other licensed independent
practitioner(s)” could record such notes. This rule opens this up to
“nonphysician practitioners” – whose average wages are roughly one-half those
of physicians – thereby saving affected facilities roughly $153 million. HHS
states that such savings’ impact on the regulatory budget “will be informed by
public comments received.”
TRACKING THE REGULATORY BUDGET
The most notable rule that does apply to the FY
2020 budget was a deregulatory action out of the Department of Defense (DOD).
The rule updates
language regarding “Performance-Based Payments” in the defense acquisition
process. DOD estimates that these adjustments will save affected contractors
money due to more favorable financing costs over the life of a given project.
The department expects the rule to yield roughly $54 million in total public
cost savings.
The Trump Administration expects to reach $51.6
billion in cumulative net savings in FY 2020. To date in the fiscal year, agencies
have officially published 70 deregulatory actions and 24 regulatory actions,
totaling $3.6 billion in quantified total net costs. Once the Safer, Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles rule is
officially published, the administration-wide total will be $195.9 billion in
net total savings.
Disclaimerhttps://www.americanactionforum.org/week-in-regulation/significant-coronavirus-rules-start-to-appear/#ixzz6JdiQqnuH
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