BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2380
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Date of Hearing: April 10, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
AB 2380 (Huber) - As Introduced: February 24, 2012
SUBJECT : State government: agency repeals.
SUMMARY : Requires eligible agencies for which a repeal date
has been established on or after January 1, 2011, to submit a
report to the Joint Sunset Review Committee (Committee) on or
before December 1, two years prior to the year the agency is set
to be repealed.
EXISTING LAW
1)Establishes the Committee to identify and eliminate waste,
duplication, and inefficiency in government agencies, and
states that the purpose of the Committee is to conduct a
comprehensive analysis over 15 years, and on a periodic basis
thereafter, of every eligible agency to determine if the
agency is still necessary and cost effective.
2)Requires eligible agencies to submit to the Committee, on or
before December 1 prior to the year it is set to be repealed,
a complete agency report covering the entire period since last
reviewed, as specified.
3)Requires the Committee to take public testimony and evaluate
the eligible agency prior to the date the agency is scheduled
to be repealed.
4)Requires an eligible agency to be eliminated unless the
Legislature enacts a law to extend, consolidate, or reorganize
the eligible agency. No eligible agency shall be extended in
perpetuity unless specifically exempted. The Committee may
recommend that the Legislature extend the statutory sunset
date for no more than one year to allow the Committee more
time to evaluate the eligible agency.
5)Establishes the composition of the Committee, which includes
10 members of the Legislature, and its meeting schedule, as
specified.
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6)Defines "eligible agency" to mean an agency, authority, board,
bureau, commission, conservancy, council, department,
division, or office of state government, however denominated,
excluding an agency that is constitutionally created or an
agency related to postsecondary education, for which a date
for repeal has been established by statute on or after January
1, 2011.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill . According to the author, "The original
statute requires an entity to submit a report by December 1
prior to the year the entity is set to be repealed. Because
most repeal dates are scheduled for January 1, this leaves only
30 days for the Committee to review an entity before it sunsets.
This bill corrects the timeline to provide for a full year (and
30 days) prior to the entity's sunset for review."
Background . The policy of establishing sunset dates is intended
to provide the Legislature an opportunity to conduct a regular
systematic performance review and evaluation of governmental
bodies, commonly referred to as the "Sunset Review" process.
Prompted by an impending sunset date, the Legislature may choose
to extend the sunset to a later date or instead terminate or
"sunset" the governmental body in question. Regardless of
whether a governmental body has a sunset or not, the Legislature
may still conduct a review at any time.
Each year, the Legislature enacts legislation extending sunset
dates and simultaneously making substantive policy changes.
This can be concerning if the Legislature and Administration are
unable to reach consensus related to the new policies prior to
the sunset date. This most notably occurred regarding the
Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE). The Governor
vetoed a bill both revising the functions of the BPPE and
extending its sunset and the BPPE became inoperative July of
2007, and remained inoperative, until early 2010. The inability
to extend the sunset of the BPPE caused a significant lapse in
the regulation of private postsecondary education and a failure
to provide for the protection and interests of students and
institutions.
Similarly, the Governor vetoed a bill extending the sunset for
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four boards (Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board,
Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians, Board
of Barbering and Cosmetology, and the Dental Board of
California) in 2007 for reasons unrelated to the extension of
their respective sunset dates. Legislation was enacted to
resurrect these boards six months after they were made
inoperative. Likewise, in 2011, a bill to extend the sunset of
the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) was vetoed by the
Governor. BRN was reconstituted by way of urgency legislation
in February of 2012, two months after it was made inoperative.
California has experienced a long and arduous process of
establishing and then revising its sunset review process and the
entities subject to it, beginning in 1994 and culminating in
last year's AB 1659 (Huber), Chapter 666, Statutes of 2010,
which establishes the Committee and its purpose, composition and
authority.
Once limited to boards and bureaus within the Department of
Consumer Affairs (DCA), sunset review now encompasses a much
broader range of government entities. Sunset review of DCA
entities falls under the purview of the appropriate standing
policy committees of the Legislature, while the Committee's
jurisdiction includes any "agency, authority, board, bureau,
commission, conservancy, council, department, division, or
office of state government, however denominated, excluding an
agency that is constitutionally created or an agency related to
postsecondary education, for which a date for repeal has been
established by statute on or after January 1, 2011."
Current law requires these eligible agencies to submit a report
to the Committee on or before December 1 prior to the year the
agency is scheduled for repeal. The report must cover the
entire period since last reviewed including, but not limited to,
the following information:
1)The purpose and necessity of the agency.
2)A description of the agency budget, priorities, and job
descriptions of employees of the agency.
3)Any programs and projects under the direction of the agency.
4)Measures of the success or failures of the agency and
justifications for the metrics used to evaluate successes and
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failures.
5)Any recommendations of the agency for changes or
reorganization in order to better fulfill its purpose.
The review process includes the following steps:
1)The Committee sends an invitation letter to the entity to
participate in the sunset review process. This letter asks
the entity to complete a Self Evaluation Report (SER) and
gives the approximate date and time of a public hearing.
2)Committee staff receives the completed SER and produces a
staff report with recommendations. Staff shares the report
with the entity prior to publication for comments.
3)At the public hearing, the committee staff discusses the
report and the entity and stakeholders present and respond.
4)Committee members vote on any recommendations rising from the
report and/or the public hearing at the next Joint Sunset
Committee hearing.
This bill changes the due date for the agency reports to be no
later than December 1 two years prior to the date of repeal,
which allows the Committee an additional year to complete its
review process without having to request a sunset extension from
the Legislature.
Previous legislation .
AB 1659 (Huber), Chapter 666, Statutes of 2010, establishes the
Committee and its purpose, composition and authority.
AB 2130 (Huber), Chapter 670, Statutes of 2010, abolishes the
Joint Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection,
and instead makes specified boards and regulatory programs
subject to review by the Committee.
SB 1171 (Negrete McLeod) of 2010, among other things, revises
and recasts sunset review law to remove references to the Joint
Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection, and
instead authorize the appropriate standing policy committees of
the Legislature to carry out sunset review functions. This bill
was held in Senate Rules Committee.
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SB 638 (Negrete McLeod) of 2009, among other things, revises and
recasts sunset review law to remove references to the Joint
Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection, and
instead authorize the appropriate standing policy committees of
the Legislature to carry out the sunset review functions. This
bill was held in Senate Rules Committee.
AB 1467 (Negrete McLeod), Chapter 33, Statutes of 2004, renames
the Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee to the Joint
Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection.
SB 364 (Figueroa), Chapter 789, Statutes of 2003, expands the
jurisdiction of the Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee to
include virtually all state boards.
SB 2036 (McCorquodale), Chapter 908, Statutes of 1994, creates
the sunset review process in California by establishing the
Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee to provide specific
review criteria and minimum standards of evaluation for
legislative and state agency use, and to subject all boards of
the DCA to periodic review and sunset.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Angela Mapp / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301