Senate Bill No. 1237

Introduced by Senator Bates

February 18, 2016

An act to amend Section 11340.1 of the Government Code, relating to state government.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1237, as introduced, Bates. State government: regulations.

Existing law, for the purpose of reducing and improving administrative regulations, establishes an Office of Administrative Law to review adopted regulations.

This bill would make several nonsubstantive changes to that provision.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 11340.1 of the Government Code is
amended to read:

11340.1.  

(a) The Legislature therefore declares that it is in the
public interest to establish an Office of Administrative Law begin delete which
shall be end delete charged with the orderly review of adopted regulations.
It is the intent of the Legislature that the purpose of begin delete such end delete begin insert the end insert review
shall be to reduce the number of administrative regulations and to
improve the quality of begin delete those end delete regulations begin delete which end delete begin insert that end insert are adopted.
It is the intent of the Legislature that agencies shall actively seek
to reduce the unnecessary regulatory burden on private individuals
and entities by substituting performance standards for prescriptive
standards begin delete wherever end delete begin insert if end insert performance standards can be reasonably
expected to be as effective and less burdensome, and that this
substitution shall be considered during the course of the agency
rulemaking process. It is the intent of the Legislature that neither
the Office of Administrative Law nor the court should substitute
its judgment for that of the rulemaking agency as expressed in the
substantive content of adopted regulations. It is the intent of the
Legislature that while the Office of Administrative Law will be
part of the executive branch of state government, that the office
work closely with, and upon request report directly to, the
Legislature in order to accomplish regulatory reform in California.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the California Code of
Regulations made available on the Internet by the office pursuant
to Section 11344 include complete authority and reference citations
and history notes.