This past week continued the trend of its predecessor in producing nearly equivalent costs versus savings. However, this week did land on the nominally deregulatory side of the ledger. Across both proposed and final rules, agencies published roughly $600,000 in net cost savings with 175,925 fewer paperwork burden hours. To give further perspective on the relatively mild level of activity, no individual rulemaking estimated costs or savings in excess of $10 million. The per capita regulatory burden for 2018 is negative $3.98.

Regulatory Toplines

• New Proposed Rules: 39
• New Final Rules: 57
• 2018 Total Pages of Regulation: 6,917
• 2018 Final Rules: -$1.3 Billion
• 2018 Proposed Rules: $717.9 Million

Tracking Regulatory Modernization

There was one final rule that contributed cost savings towards the administration’s “regulatory budget” under Executive Order (EO) 13,771. The Department of Education rule delays the implementation of a 2016 “borrower defense” rule so that the agency has “adequate time to conduct negotiated rulemaking and develop revised regulations.” This delay cuts relevant compliance costs by $9.5 million annually.

According to American Action Forum (AAF) analysis, since the start of FY 2018 (beginning Oct. 1, 2017), executive agencies have promulgated 21 deregulatory actions with quantified cost savings against 5 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 a net annual savings of roughly $624 million. The administration’s goal for FY 2018 is $687 million in net annual savings.

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 $53 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 $572.6 million in net costs savings ($1.3 billion from final rules) and new paperwork burdens amounting to 1.4 million hours (however, this includes 962,638 hours cut under final rules). Click here for the latest Reg Rodeo findings.