Overall Obama Regulatory Burden Nears $500 Billion

January 9, 2014 by Sam Rolley

PHOTOS.COM

The American Action Forum, a moderate conservative research institute, released its most recent examination of the regulatory burden caused by government, finding that Federal regulations cost the U.S. economy $112 billion in 2013. Last year’s regulatory costs elevate the total economic burden of Federal regulation during the first five years of the Barack Obama Administration to nearly $500 billion.
“From 2009 to 2013, regulators have published $494 billion in final rules,” Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at the American Action Forum, wrote in the report. “This figure dwarfs the gross domestic product (GDP) from countries like Sweden, Peru, and Ireland. With more than $87.6 billion in proposed rule costs this year, burdens will continue to increase in 2014.”
The 80,224 pages of regulation imposed in 2013 cost the economy roughly $447 million for each of the 251 days that the Federal government was open, according to the report. The new measures also added 157.9 million paperwork burden hours, according to the daily tally from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
The report said that the gridlock and inactivity of the “do-nothing” Congress has done little to stem the tide of new regulation in recent years because it is balanced against a White House “content to bypass legislative activity and impose its policy agenda by administrative fiat.”
Below is a graph from the report which lists the top five proposed and final regulations published in 2013:

“Not surprisingly, EPA, the Department of Energy (DOE), and health care rulemakings dominate. EPA’s Tier 3 emissions standard easily led the year and would add $3.4 billion in annual costs, more than 160,000 annual paperwork burden hours, with total costs topping $35 billion,” Batikins wrote.
Batkins also noted that an overall increase in the Obama Administration’s regulatory activity for 2013 was the result of the White House’s decision to put off certain costly regulations until after the 2012 election. Among them was the EPA’s Tier 3 emissions standard.
“The White House singled-out this regulation for delay in 2012, as staffers disclosed reservations about the cost and the likelihood of higher gas prices,” according to Batkins. “The White House now plans to finalize the Tier 3 standards in February.”
A report produced by the Administrative Conference of the United States in December backs up the notion that the White House put off burdensome new rules until after the election. According to that report, the overall regulatory approval process jumped from an average completion time of 50 days between 1994 and 2011 to 79 days in 2012 leading up to the Presidential election.

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Liberty News, Staff Reports

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