The opening week of June 2025 saw a modest spike in the level of regulatory activity that had appreciable economic impacts. There were a dozen rulemakings with some kind of quantified economic effect. Most of these, however, were not particularly consequential. A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule focused on updates to the nation’s 911 networks was the most significant item of the week. Across all rulemakings, agencies published $61.2 million in total costs but cut 14,290 paperwork burden hours.

REGULATORY TOPLINES

• Proposed Rules: 31
• Final Rules: 65
• 2025 Total Pages: 24,143
• 2025 Final Rule Costs: -$75.8 billion
• 2025 Proposed Rule Costs: $181.4 billion

NOTABLE REGULATORY ACTIONS

As mentioned above, the rulemaking with most substantive impact published this past week in the Federal Register was the FCC proposed rule regarding “Facilitating Implementation of Next Generation 911 Services (NG911); Improving 911 Reliability.” Specifically, the proposal seeks to do the following:

The [Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] FNPRM proposes to update the definition of “covered 911 service provider” in the Commission’s existing 911 reliability rules to ensure that the rules apply to service providers that control or operate critical pathways and components in NG911 networks. It also proposes to update the reliability standards for providers of critical NG911 functions to ensure the reliable delivery of 911 traffic to NG911 delivery points, and proposes to establish NG911 interoperability requirements for interstate transfer of 911 traffic between Emergency Services IP Networks (ESInets). In addition, the FNPRM proposes to modify the certification and oversight mechanisms in the current 911 reliability rules to improve reliability and interoperability in NG911 systems while minimizing burdens on service providers, and proposes to empower state and local 911 Authorities to obtain reliability and interoperability certifications directly from covered 911 service providers.

FCC expects these various actions to involve $36 million in total costs (across a five-year window) but also yield $304 million in annual benefits due to “the estimated lives saved” by these updates.

TRACKING TRUMP 2.0

There were no significant announcements coming from the White House regarding broader regulatory policy initiatives this past week. The most notable items that could have some substantial regulatory impact came in a trio of executive orders (EOs) issued late Friday afternoon focused on certain aerospace issues. The EOs, respectively, seek to: 1) spur greater innovation in the domestic production of “unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), otherwise known as drones”; 2) establish further protective measures regarding potentially sensitive targets and the operation of UAS that certain agencies deem security threats; and 3) update relevant regulatory provisions to allow for renewed development of supersonic flights.

Also of note: The Department of Transportation published a series of rulemaking documents last Tuesday that formally withdraw certain rulemakings from the agency’s regulatory plans, suggesting that the administration will soon release its Spring Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. Stay tuned for that.

There were no new developments on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) front on Capitol Hill. Be sure to follow the American Action Forum (AAF) CRA tracker. As of today, members of the 119th Congress have introduced CRA resolutions of disapproval addressing 44 Biden-era rules that collectively involve $137.5 billion in compliance costs. Out of these, 11 such resolutions have been passed into law, repealing a series of Biden Administration rules that had a combined $3 billion in associated compliance costs – roughly 2 percent of that potential $137.5 billion total.

It is highly unlikely, however, that any more resolutions of disapproval with a realistic chance of passage will be introduced this term. Since there are still outstanding resolutions that could move legislatively, though, AAF will continue to monitor and update such developments as appropriate. The series of CRA resolutions addressing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waiver determinations for California emission standards as well as a resolution on another EPA rulemaking continue to await President Trump’s expected signature. Additionally, there are two other Senate-passed resolutions that the House could still take up whenever it pleases.

TOTAL BURDENS

Since January 1, the federal government has published $105.6 billion in total net costs (with $75.8 billion in cost savings from finalized rules) and 69.6 million hours of net annual paperwork cuts (with 48.4 million hours coming from final rules).