A recent Bloomberg article reported that less than halfway through the process of implementing the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the pace of the SEC's rulewriting has slowed by about half. In the last four months, the SEC commissioners have not met once to approve or propose rules required by Dodd-Frank. According to Bloomberg's data, in the first year after Dodd-Frank was enacted, the agency approved 108 proposals, adoptions and rule concept release (an average of nine per month). After the first year, there have only been about 39 rulemaking SEC votes (about 5.3 a month).
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro has acknowledged the slowdown exists and offers several explanations, including the complexity and high volume of public comments on recent rules and the addition of a new commissioner last November. In addition, the SEC is spending additional time on cost-benefit analysis (which, in the wake of the proxy access rule being struck down for insufficient analysis, has been the subject of heavy public scrutiny).