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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 236 / Monday, December 13, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
8042. This rule will not result in an annual effect on the economy of $100
million or more; a major increase in costs or prices; or significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or on the ability of United States-based enterprises to compete with foreignbased enterprises in domestic and export markets. The Department will report to Congress and to the Comptroller General as required by 5
U.S.C. 801a.

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D. Executive Order 12866 and Executive Order 13563 Regulatory Planning and Review Executive Orders 12866 and 13563
direct agencies to assess all costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits including potential economic, environmental, public health, and safety effects, distributive impacts, and equity. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget OMB has determined that this rule is not a significant regulatory action under section 3f of Executive Order 12866. It will neither result in an annual effect on the economy greater than $100 million nor adversely affect the economy or sectors of the economy. It does not pertain to entitlements, grants, user fees, or loan programs, nor does it raise novel legal or policy issues. It does not create inconsistencies or interfere with actions taken by other agencies. Accordingly, this rule is not a significant regulatory action subject to review by OMB
pursuant to Executive Order 12866.
Executive Order 13563 directs agencies to assess all costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety, and other advantages;
distributive impacts; and equity.
Executive Order 13563 emphasizes the importance of using the best available methods to quantify costs and benefits, reducing costs, harmonizing rules, and promoting flexibility. The Department certifies that this regulation has been drafted in accordance with the principles of Executive Order 13563.
1. ECAS-Related Costs and Savings The Department estimates that implementation of ECAS will result in a total savings of $68,103,621 over the
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first 10 years of its implementation.1
Specifically, the Department estimates that electronic filing will cost EOIR
$32,897,808 over 10 years, primarily due to increased technology costs to implement and maintain the new technology infrastructure. These costs are outweighed, however, by the predicted savings to the public $101,001,429, which primarily relate to cost savings from no longer having to file documents via mail or in person.
These costs and savings for EOIR and the public are discussed in further detail individually below.

TABLE 1OVERVIEW OF TOTAL COST
AND SAVINGS: EOIR AND THE PUBLIC 2
Entity
Savings/costs
EOIR
OCIJ
BIA
OIT
OGC
Public

$32,897,808
12,910,888
2,710,950
51,275,937
2,757,920
101,001,429

Total

68,103,621

Despite the financial cost to EOIR to develop and maintain the technology for ECAS, the Department believes that electronic filings will be a net benefit for the agency. During the electronic filing pilot program, EOIR has already begun to realize efficiencies in case processing.
For example, in Fiscal Year FY 2019
DHS initiated 37,074 cases electronically out of 465,790 cases initiated in the same time period, and 161 bond proceedings were initiated electronically. According to internal pilot metrics, charging documents filed electronically at the pilot sites are being processed nearly 10 times faster than charging documents filed in paper.
Similarly, the time it takes to receive and process a non-charging supporting document is approximately 25 percent faster than processing a paper-filed supporting document. This represents a significant savings in terms of court staff time and in terms of the overall 1 All dollar amounts cited in this discussion are calculated to correspond with what would have been the value in December 2016 using the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS Consumer Price Index inflation calculator found at https
www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm last visited Mar. 1, 2021.
2 Savings listed are an overestimation as they include all filings, rather than only those filings that can be done electronically at this time i.e., the savings include filings by pro se respondents who cannot yet use ECAS. In addition, the Department notes that any differences in the amount of cost and benefits listed herein from those noted in the NPRM
are the result of changes in when the Department applied rounding in the calculation for consistency and not due to substantive changes in the calculations.

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processing time for the 2,574
electronically filed motions that EOIR
has received during the ECAS pilot program from its inception to the end of January 2020. This rule will only increase these time savings when all attorneys and accredited representatives begin filing documents electronically.
a. Office of the Chief Immigration Judge The Department estimates that implementation of the rule will reduce the immigration courts costs by the equivalent of approximately $12.9
million over the first 10 years of implementation. This reduction includes the cost of labor that will be reallocated to other tasks due to the more efficient processing of electronic documents. Cost changes for the courts will be realized primarily in initial case processing; individual hearing processing; and processing and shipping costs for changes of venue, appeals, and records retirement.
To reach its estimates, the Department determined the costs for adjudicating a typical case after the implementation of the rule. Using this methodology, the Department identified and analyzed three separate scenarios: 1 Legacy paper ROPs that were started but not completed before this rule; 2 eROPs for pro se respondents that are submitted in paper and scanned by court staff; and 3 eROPs for represented respondents that are completely electronic.
The Department then estimated the economic impact of the rule on the immigration courts for each of the next 10 years by calculating the average costs for each of the three scenarios above;
multiplying each scenarios average cost by the expected annual number of cases received for the immigration courts and expected annual hearings for the immigration courts in each scenario over the next decade; separately calculating the baseline cost i.e., the cost without mandatory electronic filing, using existing time estimates and labor rates, for the next 10 years; and subtracting the post-regulation cost from the baseline cost for each of the next 10
years.
This economic impact reflects labor hours that will be saved in terms of dollars. In actuality, labor can be reallocated to higher-impact tasks, and more efficient labor usage could offset future hiring and resource needs, which may lead to more quantifiable realized savings. As shown in Table 2, the expected cost savings increase every year. This is a result of legacy paper ROPs leaving the system as cases are adjudicated and a higher percentage of the future pending cases having
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