AB 2671: Regulations: legislative review: regulatory reform.

The Administrative Procedure Act governs the procedure for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law. That act requires an agency, prior to submitting a proposal to adopt, amend, or repeal an administrative regulation, to determine the economic impact of that regulation, in accordance with certain procedures. The act defines a major regulation as a regulation, as specified, that will have an economic impact on California business enterprises and individuals in an amount exceeding $50,000,000, as estimated by the agency. The act requires the office to transmit a copy of a regulation to the Secretary of State for filing if the office approves the regulation or fails to act on it within 30 days. The act provides that a regulation or an order of repeal of a regulation becomes effective on a quarterly basis, as prescribed, except in specified instances.

This bill would require the office to submit to each house of the Legislature for review a copy of each major regulation that it submits to the Secretary of State. The bill would add another exception to those currently provided that specifies that a regulation does not become effective if the Legislature enacts a statute to override the regulation.

The Administrative Procedure Act requires the Office of Administrative Law and a state agency proposing to adopt, amend, or repeal a regulation to review the proposed changes for, among other things, consistency with existing state regulations.

This bill would require each state agency to, on or before January 1, 2021, review that agencys regulations, identify any regulations that are duplicative, overlapping, inconsistent, or out of date, to revise those identified regulations, as provided, and report to the Legislature and Governor, as specified. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2022.