BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1868
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1868 (Wagner) - As Amended May 3, 2016
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|Policy |Accountability and |Vote:|9 - 0 |
|Committee: |Administrative Review | | |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) to
email a link to an Internet website of proposed regulatory
action (proposed action) to appropriate Senate and Assembly
policy committee secretaries, at least 45 days prior to the
hearing and close of the public comment period if the proposed
action includes an economic impact, cost impact, statement or
finding, as specified.
AB 1868
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FISCAL EFFECT:
Ongoing costs to OAL of at least $85,000 (GF) for one staff
services analyst to perform the requirements of the bill. This
includes transmitting a copy of each weekly Notice Register to
the appropriate committee secretary concerning each notice of
proposed action published in the Notice Register, and making the
determination as to the "appropriate" Senate and Assembly policy
committee, sending the information to the correct secretaries'
electronic email and responding to questions/concerns regarding
the information in the Notice Register. In 2015, OAL received
over 400 notices of proposed actions.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, "This bill would ensure that
the executive branch is kept in check, as it enforces the laws
that the Legislature creates, and would bring the Legislature
into its proper role of oversight of the executive branch."
2)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 and
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.
This bill, in addition to the existing notification
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requirements, requires OAL to submit notices to Senate and
Assembly policy committee secretaries. As noted above, in
2015, OAL received over 400 notices of proposed actions.
3)Necessary? Proposed actions are already available publicly and
mechanisms exist for those interested in receiving them to do
so under current law. Individuals, including Legislators, with
an interest in a particular area can sign up to receive
proposed actions in one or more programs of a state agency.
Additionally, agencies are required to provide these documents
to representatives of affected groups and publish them in the
California Regulatory Notice Register (Register). The OAL
publishes the Register on its website every Friday. The
Committee may wish to consider whether another avenue of
communication is necessary and justified.
4)Prior Legislation.
a) AB 797 (Steinorth), 2015, would have required a copy of
each major regulation submitted to the Secretary of State
(SOS) by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) to also be
submitted to the appropriate Legislative policy committees
responsible for the subject matter of the regulation for
review. It passed off the Assembly Floor but was never
heard in the Senate.
b) AB 12 (Cooley), 2015, would have required state agencies
and departments to review, adopt, amend or repeal any
applicable regulations that are duplicative, overlapping,
inconsistent, or out of date by January 1, 2018. As part of
this process, state agencies and departments would have
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been required to notify the appropriate policy and fiscal
committees of the Legislature of the proposed revisions and
report to the Governor and the Legislature. It was held on
the Senate Appropriations Committee's Suspense file.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081