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.