BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 176
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 30, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 176 (Galgiani) - As Amended: August 7, 2013
Policy Committee:
AccountabilityVote:12 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill amends the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to
increase the requirements for agencies in the rulemaking
process. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires state agencies to make a reasonable effort to consult
with interested persons and affected entities at the beginning
of the rulemaking process.
2)Requires agencies that do not or cannot comply with the
requirement to consult with interested persons to justify the
noncompliance in the rulemaking record.
3)Requires state agencies to include parties that will be
subject to a proposed regulation in public discussions prior
to the publication of the rulemaking notice, regardless of the
complexity of the proposal.
4)Permits state agencies to electronically submit mandated
notices and rulemaking documents to the Office of
Administrative Law (OAL).
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown costs, potentially in the millions of dollars for the
workload associated with requiring every agency that submits a
regulations package to conduct public discussions with
interested and affected parties prior to the publication of
the notice, regardless of the complexity of the proposed
regulation.
SB 176
Page 2
2)One-time costs in the range of $500,000 GF for the technology
requirements associated with allowing agencies to submit
documents electronically to OAL.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . Supporters note that since the adoption of the APA
in 1945, the process for developing regulations has evolved
substantially, and today a majority of regulations are
developed during the pre-rulemaking process. They believe that
this bill will greatly benefit state agencies when developing
regulations by encouraging citizen participation.
The author is proposing to amend Government Code Section 11346
(b), which currently states "An agency that is considering
adopting, amending, or repealing a regulation may consult with
interested persons before initiating regulatory action
pursuant to this article." Supporters contend that the
current permissive requirement does not hold agencies
sufficiently accountable for notifying the public and affected
parties of new rules or changes to existing rules.
Accordingly, this bill amends this section by replacing "may"
with "shall make a reasonable effort to consult with
interested persons who would be subject to the proposed
regulation, or their representatives, prior to initiating
regulatory action pursuant to this article." This bill now
requires agencies to engage with interested persons.
Flexibility remains by recognizing the agency need only "make
a reasonable effort."
Additional flexibility is also provided to agencies by
allowing them to state in the rulemaking record specific
reasons why they are unable to contact interested parties as
specified.
2)Background . The Administrative Procedures Act (APA) governs
the adoption of regulations by state agencies for purposes of
ensuring they are clear, necessary, legally valid, and
available to the public. In seeking adoption of a proposed
regulation, state agencies must comply with procedural
requirements that include publishing the proposed regulation
along with a supporting statement of reasons, mailing and
publishing a notice of the proposed action 45 days before a
hearing or before the close of the public comment period, and
SB 176
Page 3
submitting a final statement to OAL that summarizes and
responds to all objections, recommendations and proposed
alternatives raised during the public comment period. The OAL
is then required to approve or reject the proposed regulation
within 30 days.
OAL is responsible for reviewing administrative regulations
proposed by over 200 state agencies for compliance with the
standards set forth in the APA, for transmitting these
regulations to SOS and for publishing regulations in the
California Code of Regulations. Existing law requires OAL to
review all regulations for necessity and non-duplication, and
requires OAL to print a summary of all regulations filed with
SOS in the previous week in the California Regulatory Notice
Register. On average, OAL reviews 700 regulations packages
per year. Those packages can be anywhere from one to 400 pages
long. In 2011, close to 5,000 different regulations sections
were reviewed by OAL.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081