BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 12 (Cooley) - State government: administrative regulations:
review
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|Version: April 22, 2015 |Policy Vote: G.O. 13 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 24, 2015 |Consultant: Mark McKenzie |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 12 would require every state agency to review all
provisions of the California Code of Regulations (CCR) it has
adopted, and to adopt, amend, or repeal any regulations
identified as duplicative, overlapping, or out of date by
January 1, 2018.
Fiscal
Impact:
Office of Administrative Law (OAL) costs of approximately
$744,000 in the 2016 calendar year and approximately $695,000
in 2017 for 7 PY of full-time, limited-term staff and
associated costs to manage a significant increase in workload
AB 12 (Cooley) Page 1 of
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over two years. (General Fund)
Unknown, major aggregate state costs, likely in the millions
and potentially over ten million annually for two years, for
over 200 state agencies to review all current regulations,
make necessary revisions to identified regulations through the
Administrative Procedure Act (APA) process, coordinate with
other agencies and departments, and report to the Governor and
Legislature. (General Fund and various special funds)
Background: The Administrative Procedures Act (APA) requires the Office of
Administrative Law to ensure that state agency regulations 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 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.
The OAL is responsible for reviewing administrative regulations
proposed by over 200 state regulatory agencies for compliance
with the standards set forth in the APA, for transmitting these
regulations to the Secretary of State and for publishing
regulations in the California Code of Regulations (CCR). On
average, OAL reviews nearly 600 files that affect approximately
4,000 regulations packages per year. In 2014, 4,761 proposed
regulations were submitted by state agencies for APA review.
There are currently nearly 53,000 active regulations in the CCR.
Existing law requires OAL, at the request of any standing,
select, or joint committee of the Legislature, to initiate a
priority review of any regulation that committee believes does
not meet the standards of necessity, authority, clarity,
reference, and nonduplication. If OAL is made aware of an
existing regulation for which statutory authority has been
repealed or becomes ineffective, it must order the agency that
adopted the regulation to show cause why it should not be
repealed, and notify the Legislature of the order.
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Proposed Law:
AB 12 would require each state agency, as defined, to review
all provisions of the California Code of Regulations (CCR)
adopted by that agency and adopt, amend, or repeal regulations
identified as duplicative, overlapping, inconsistent, or out of
date. An agency acting on this requirement must hold at least
one noticed public meeting to accept public comment, and notify
the appropriate committees of the Legislature of the proposed
revisions to regulations prior to initiating the APA process.
Each state agency must also report to the Governor and
Legislature on the number and content of regulations identified
as duplicative, overlapping, inconsistent, or out of date, and
the agency's actions to address those regulations. Each agency
must complete all of these duties by January 1, 2018.
The bill also requires each cabinet-level agency, by January 1,
2018, to notify departments, boards, or other units within the
agency of any regulations it has adopted that may be
duplicative, overlapping, or inconsistent with a regulation
adopted by another department, board, or unit within the agency.
A department within an agency must notify that agency of any
proposed revisions to regulations at least 90 days prior to the
specified noticed public hearing noted above, and the agency
must review the proposal and make recommendations to the
department within 30 days. Cabinet-level agencies must also
notify other agencies of existing regulations that may
duplicate, overlap, or be inconsistent with that agency's
regulations.
The bill's provisions would sunset on January 1, 2019.
Related
Legislation: SB 981 (Huff), which was held in the Senate
Governmental Organization Committee in 2014, would have required
state agencies to review regulations adopted in the past and
report specified information on each regulation to the
Legislature, including whether a regulation is duplicative,
still relevant, or needs to be updated to be less burdensome or
more effective.
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SB 366 (Calderon), which was referred to the Senate Governmental
Organization Committee in 2011 but never heard, included
provisions that were nearly identical to the introduced version
of this bill.
Staff
Comments: This bill is intended to implement a recommendation
from an October, 2011 Little Hoover Commission Report entitled
Better Regulation: Improving California's Rulemaking Process.
Among the Commission's recommendations was a suggestion that the
state establish a "look-back" mechanism to determine if
regulations are effective and still necessary.
The last comprehensive review of state agency regulations
occurred when OAL was established in 1980. At that time there
were over 125 state agencies and over 40,000 regulations printed
in the CCR, and today there are over 200 agencies and nearly
53,000 regulations. In addition, OAL had a staff of 50
employees, including 17 attorneys, while they currently have a
staff of 20, half of which are attorneys. OAL anticipates it
would need an additional five attorneys and two support staff on
a full-time, limited-term basis to manage the significant
increase in workload to ensure compliance with the APA for state
agency proposals to adopt, amend, or repeal regulations over the
next two years. Anticipated staff costs are noted above.
AB 12 would impose significant costs on every state office,
department, board, bureau, and commission to review all
regulations that each entity has in the CCR, and adopt, amend,
or repeal any that are identified as duplicative, overlapping,
inconsistent, or outdated. The bill would also require
cabinet-level agencies to review the regulations of all of their
constituent entities and notify them of any duplication,
inconsistency, or overlap with the regulations of one of its
other constituent entities. Costs are difficult to quantify in
the aggregate since there are over 200 entities that must review
regulations, and costs and staffing needs would vary for each of
them. For individual agencies, costs could be relatively minor
for smaller state entities that have few regulations in the CCR,
but likely in the low hundreds of thousands annually for two
years for many other agencies that have more, and/or more
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complex regulations on the books. Some state entities may have
costs that exceed $1 million for each of the next two years.
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