BILL NUMBER: AB 2090	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Bill Berryhill

                        FEBRUARY 23, 2012

   An act relating to regulations.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2090, as introduced, Bill Berryhill. Regulations.
   The Administrative Procedure Act generally sets forth the
requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and
implementation of regulations by state agencies, and for review of
those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law.
   This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that would provide greater oversight over the regulatory
process.
   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.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Robust jobs and economic growth are the key to repairing
California's chronic budget problems and generating adequate revenues
to fund vital programs like education, infrastructure, and public
safety.
   (b) California's jobs, business, and economic climate have been in
dire straits for several years, resulting in higher unemployment,
and a reduction in the number of businesses, small businesses in
particular, operating in the state and concomitant decline in state
revenues.
   (c) California's regulatory burdens are often cited as one of the
main causes of stagnant job and economic growth and why many
businesses decide to expand in other states instead of California. In
fact, in 2011 CEO magazine ranked California last among states where
companies prefer to do business for the seventh straight year.
   (d) A large part of the problem is that too much authority over
the California economy and jobs climate has been ceded to the
unelected state bureaucracy. Regulations adopted by state agencies
often impose unnecessary burdens on California's economic and jobs
climate at a time when California can least afford to discourage
economic and job growth.
   (e) Today, instead of using due diligence in analyzing the
economic impacts of proposed regulations, state agencies often merely
fill out a four-page economic questionnaire that provides little
more than one-word answers and checked-off boxes and is devoid of
supporting data. On top of that, this information is not currently
required to be made available to the public.
   (f) More sunshine and public input is needed in the regulatory
rulemaking process. Those subject to regulations are often in the
best position to determine the actual costs of regulations, and also
to identify equally effective but less burdensome alternatives.
   (g) Additionally, the connection between those that adopt laws and
those that implement them has been eroded. Stronger and more direct
oversight of the regulatory rulemaking process by the Legislature, as
the body conferring authority to adopt regulations, will improve the
regulatory rulemaking process.
   (h) It is not the intent of this act to unduly impede the
regulatory rulemaking process. It is rather to provide greater
sunshine and public participation in the fastest-growing area of
government and to develop the most thoughtful, economically
efficient, and least burdensome regulations on jobs and businesses
when carrying out the intent of authorizing statutes.
   (i) Under this act, if a state agency has sufficiently involved
the public in the rulemaking process and conducted a thorough
analysis of a regulation's economic impacts, this act should have no
adverse effect on the regulatory rulemaking process.
   (j) Further, the purpose of this act is not to prevent or postpone
the adoption of any particular type of regulation or regulations but
simply to ensure that accurate and honest information about a
proposed regulation's true economic impact is prepared and made
available to the public and the legislative and executive branches of
government.
  SEC. 2.  It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation
that would provide greater oversight over the regulatory process.