The Biden administration has saddled the U.S. economy with more than $1 trillion worth of final rules and regulations thus far in 2024, according to analysis conducted by the American Action Forum (AAF).
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final emissions regulations for light- and medium-duty vehicles, which some have characterized as an electric vehicle (EV) mandate, pushed the costs of the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda over the $1 trillion threshold for 2024, alone, according to AAF’s analysis. Across all agencies and regulatory actions last week, the federal government published regulations imposing $103 billion worth of total costs and 11.6 million annual paperwork hours.
Between April 22 and April 26, federal agencies proposed 38 additional rules and regulations that would cumulatively cost about $34 billion, according to AAF. Some of the major, expensive regulatory actions the administration advanced last week include the Department of Labor’s “overtime rule” and a new Medicare rule from the Department of Health and Human Services.
This past week, the final rule cost total for just 2024 can now be measured in 13 digits. While no rule matched the singular impact of the prior week’s EPA rule – because, really, what could? – this was also one of the more prolific weeks in recent memory. https://t.co/ayWiFEmg3b
— American Action Forum (@AAF) April 29, 2024
“This past week, the final rule cost total for just 2024 can now be measured in 13 digits,” Dan Goldbeck, AAF’s director of regulatory policy, wrote of the administration’s regulatory agenda on Monday. “While no rule matched the singular impact of the prior week’s EPA rule – because, really, what could? – this was also one of the more prolific weeks in recent memory.”
As of July 2023, the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda had proven to be considerably more expensive than those pursued by the administrations of former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama through the first thirty months of each presidency.
Polling suggests that voters are strongly concerned about the health of the economy ahead of the 2024 elections. Some economists believe that the U.S. economy could soon have to confront “stagflation,” the combination of weak economic growth and high inflation, if “stagflation” has not yet already arrived.
“As we have already seen from executive orders and memos, the Biden administration will surely provide plenty of contrasts with the Trump administration on the regulatory front,” Goldbeck wrote on Monday. “And while there is a general expectation that the current administration will seek to broadly restore Obama-esque regulatory actions, there will also be areas where it charts its own course.”
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
