With the House and Senate busy considering bills to “reform” the way regulations are adopted in the Commonwealth, it’s hard not to miss the fact that House and Senate standing committees have only rarely even issued comments on regulations under the regulatory review process they have now.
Rarer still is committee action to report out or even vote on a resolution to block a regulation, let alone have the full Senate and House actually adopt a resolution to kill a regulation.
From 2011 through 2016 for example, House and Senate standing committees did not comment on 91.1 percent (445) of the 488 proposed or final regulations they had the opportunity to review through the existing regulatory review process, according to the annual reports issued by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission.
In 2012 standing committees set IRRC comments on 8 of 99 regulations. In 2014 on only 2. In 2016 only 7 of 75 regulations justified any comments by standing committees. Here’s the complete rundown--
-- In 2016 the IRRC reviewed 75 regulations and standing House and Senate Committees submitted comments on 7.
-- In 2015 the IRRC reviewed 74 regulations and standing House and Senate Committees submitted comments on 9.
-- In 2014, the IRRC reviewed 90 regulations and standing House and Senate Committees submitted comments on 2.
-- In 2013, the IRRC reviewed 97 regulations and standing House and Senate Committees submitted comments on 14.
-- In 2012, the IRRC reviewed 99 regulations and standing House and Senate Committees submitted comments on 8.
-- In 2011, the IRRC reviewed 57 regulations and standing House and Senate Committees submitted comments on 13.
Since 1990, there have been 15 House/Senate concurrent resolutions introduced to bar publication of a regulation, the next step in the existing process for final regulations. Of those 15, 4 were adopted by the House and Senate-- 2 were vetoed and not overridden, 1 was vetoed and overridden barring the regulation and on the fourth one the Governor did not take action resulting in barring the regulation. The remainder of the 15 were never acted on.
From 2011 to 2016 only 2 resolutions were reported from standing committees, but never adopted by the House or Senate.
In the case of one of those regulations-- DEP’s final regulations covering conventional oil and gas drilling operations-- the General Assembly passed a bill (not a resolution) to kill those regulations which become law.
Passing a law is something the General Assembly can do at any time if they do not like a regulation.
Since 2008, the IRRC has reviewed 934 proposed and final regulations and disapproved just 35 final regulations, just over 7 percent, using criteria that have become more complicated as the years have gone by. Ultimately 29 of those regulations were approved later based on revisions, 6 disapproved regulations were withdrawn and 5 were given a second disapproval.
The number of regulations being issued and reviewed through the existing process has also dropped dramatically.
In 2001, the IRRC reviewed 164 proposed and final regulations and that increased to 160 in 2010. But agencies only delivered 42 regulations in 2017 for IRRC review, the lowest year on record since 2001.
The House State Government Committee meets February 6 on a 5 bill package of regulatory and permit reform legislation. One bill in the package-- House Bill 1237-- would let the General Assembly block publication of a regulation by doing nothing-- without passing a resolution or passing a law.
It is instructive to look at the testimony the House State Government Committee received from the Independent Regulatory Review Commission June 20 of last year on the case law involving what might be considered constitutional or not involving the General Assembly’s authority to review regulations.
Visit the Independent Regulatory Review Commission website to learn more about the regulatory review process.
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