BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1099
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1099 (Wright) - As Amended: May 17, 2012
Policy Committee: Business and
Professions Vote: 9 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill revises the dates at which a regulation or order of
appeal becomes effective, and requires the Office of
Administrative Law (OAL) to post certain information on its Web
site for a specified period of time. Specifically, this bill:
1)Provides that unless the effective date is specifically
provided, a regulation or an order of repeal shall become
effective on a quarterly basis as follows:
a) January 1 if the regulation or order of repeal is filed
September 1 to November 30, inclusive.
b) April 1 if the regulation or order of repeal is filed
December 1 to February 29, inclusive.
c) July 1 if the regulation or order of repeal is filed
March 1 to May 31, inclusive.
d) October 1 if the regulation or order of repeal is filed
June 1 to August 31, inclusive.
2)Requires within 15 days of the OAL filing a state agency
regulation with the Secretary of State (SOS), the regulation
be posted on the agency's internet Web site in an easily
identifiable location and maintained on the Web site for at
least six months from the date the regulation is filed with
the SOS.
3)Requires all state agencies, within five days of posting, to
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send to the OAL the Web site link of each regulation the
agency posts on its Web site. This measure does not apply to a
state agency that does not maintain a Web site.
4)Requires the OAL to provide on its Web site, a list of, and a
link to the full text of each regulation filed with the SOS
that has a pending effective date.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Changing the effective date of regulations would likely
require OAL to renegotiate the contract with the publisher of
the California Code of Regulations (CCR). Under the current
contract, the publisher pays the state $400,000 for the
privilege of publishing the CCR. In prior years, the publisher
has paid $600,000. However, due to the current availability
of information on the internet, that amount was reduced.
Unlike California, many states pay publishers to publish their
regulatory codes. The complexity of these new requirements
combined with the declining number of subscriptions for hard
copies of the CCRs may cause the publisher to reduce their
payment or even require the state to pay for publishing the
CCRs.
2)Unknown, potentially significant workload costs associated
with requiring over 200 state agencies to post all regulations
packages on their websites within 15 days of submitting those
regulations to the Secretary of State. In 2011, there were
close to 5,000 regulatory packages submitted to OAL.
3)One-time costs for OAL, likely in the range of $50,000 for the
training and reprogramming costs associated with the
requirement that OAL post a link to the full text of every
regulatory package.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The intent of this legislation is to make it easier
for small businesses to track new regulations by limiting the
effective date for most regulations to one of four days
throughout the year (January 1, April 1, July 1, and October
1). The author argues that it is difficult, if not
impossible, for a small business with minimal staff, to keep
track of the regulatory process involving multiple departments
and agencies. A small business owner may be complying with a
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regulation passed by one agency and be entirely unaware of
another agency's new requirements.
2)Background . The Administrative Procedures Act (APA) governs
the adoption of regulations by state agencies for purposes of
ensuring they 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.
OAL is responsible for reviewing administrative regulations
proposed by over 200 state agencies for compliance with the
standards set forth in the APA, for transmitting these
regulations to SOS and for publishing regulations in the
California Code of Regulations. Existing law requires OAL to
review all regulations for necessity and non-duplication, and
requires OAL to print a summary of all regulations filed with
SOS in the previous week in the California Regulatory Notice
Register. On average, OAL reviews 700 regulations packages
per year. Those packages can be anywhere from 1 to 400 pages
long. In 2011, close to 5,000 different regulations sections
were reviewed by OAL.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081