02/21/1995 08:04 AM House STA

 HSTA - 02/21/95                                                               
 HB 130 - REGULATION ADOPTION PROCEDURES & REVIEW                            
                                                                               
 Number 230                                                                    
                                                                               
 BRUCE CAMPBELL, Legislative Aide to Representative Pete Kelly,                
 spoke on behalf of Representative Kelly on HB 130.  HB 130 is one             
 of three bills on regulation reform, which matches with the other             
 bills quite well, even though all three were independently drafted.           
 He put a sponsor statement before the committee.                              
                                                                               
 Number 247                                                                    
                                                                               
 VICE-CHAIR OGAN spoke of another regulation reform bill now in a              
 subcommittee, saying the Chairperson expressed an interest in                 
 referring this bill to that subcommittee for review.  This is an              
 extensive bill.                                                               
                                                                               
 Number 285                                                                    
                                                                               
 REPRESENTATIVE ROBINSON said the Chair wanted the bill reviewed, as           
 a whole, in subcommittee to see how it fits in with the picture.              
 There are several options, and it might be that the subcommittee              
 will wish to create one bill to send through, or perhaps it will              
 decide to send one bill out and hold the other one.                           
                                                                               
 REPRESENTATIVE PETE KELLY arrived and gave a summary of what HB 130           
 is intended to accomplish.  He said this bill is different from the           
 other bill in the committee, and he could not be sure if they are             
 mergeable.  HB 130 is possibly a stop-gap measure for larger                  
 changes later.  It is a system that can be set in place now, since            
 it works with the present system.  It is tweaking of the system               
 rather than changing the system, or making a major or complete                
 change.  This bill attempts to reform regulations by doing two                
 things:  By empowering the Lieutenant Governor to do certain                  
 things, and requiring that he do certain things.  It also goes to             
 the regulation writing process and gives the agencies some                    
 guidelines while they are writing regulations.  HB 130 attempts               
 overall, to make elected officials accountable for the regulations            
 that are written.  Normally, legislators write the statutes, they             
 go to the Governor, then they go to the agencies where they are               
 written and then they are turned into regulations.  They are                  
 finally given to the Lieutenant Governor who has no choice but to             
 file those regulations whether they are good or bad.  HB 130                  
 attempts to put the legislature back in the loop of the regulation            
 writing process without infringing on any separations of power.               
 The Lieutenant Governor looks at the regulations and then has to              
 turn draft regulations over to the legislative regulation review              
 committee.  That committee makes certain recommendations, they can            
 call in expert testimony, they can weigh the public will through              
 hearings, then they can turn them back to the Lieutenant Governor.            
 The Lieutenant Governor can file the regulation or turn it back to            
 agencies if it is determined that the regulation is not acceptable.           
 It holds the official politically accountable.  At this point in              
 the process, if it is a bad regulation everyone is going to know              
 about it.  It is holding the Lieutenant Governor accountable, and             
 it gives the legislative review committee an opportunity to stop              
 bad legislation before it becomes law.                                        
                                                                               
 Number 398                                                                    
                                                                               
 VICE-CHAIR OGAN offered a suggestion to get some visuals, charts              
 and graphs to the subcommittee, and asked if Representative Kelly             
 objected to the committee sending his bill to the subcommittee.               
 Representative Kelly had no objection.