The House Commerce Committee reported out House Bill 1237 (Keefer-R-York) which amends the Regulatory Review Act requiring the General Assembly to specifically approve “economically significant” final regulations approved by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission.

The bill was reported out with a recommendation to re-refer the bill to the House State Government Committee which has been working on the regulation reform issue

The bill requires the Senate and House to each pass a concurrent resolution approving a final regulation which has an estimated direct or indirect cost of $1 million or more to the Commonwealth, political subdivisions and to the private sector.

While not specifically referenced in the bill, Section 9 of Article III of the state Constitution requires a concurrent resolution to be presented to the Governor for his action to sign or veto.

If the Senate and/or House fail to each pass a concurrent resolution, a final regulation would be deemed disapproved and could not go into effect. 

Since there was no action needed by the General Assembly to kill a regulation, the Governor would not have an opportunity to sign or veto their action in the usual checks and balances established in the state Constitution between the Executive and Legislative branches of government.

The bill also requires estimates of cost impacts to the verified by the Independent Fiscal Office prior to submitting a proposed regulation to the IRRC for review.  There is no similar requirement for final regulations.

All other provisions of the Regulatory Review Act requiring a review at the proposed and final regulations by Senate and House Committees and the IRRC and follow-up actions of an IRRC-approved final-form regulation are not changed by the bill.

This legislation is similar to a bill-- Senate Bill 561 (DiSanto-R-Dauphin)-- passed on June 13 by a party-line vote (Republicans supporting) also allowing the General Assembly to kill regulations by doing nothing.  This bill is in the House State Government Committee.  Click Here for more.

A 2013 study by Rutgers University presented to the House State Government Committee found Pennsylvania’s regulatory adoption process is already more complex and has more “veto points” than the federal government does.  Click Here for more.

Rep. Brian Ellis (R-Butler) serves as Majority Chair of the Committee and can be contacted by sending email to: bellis@pahousegop.com. Rep. Curtis Thomas (D-Philadelphia) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by sending email to: cthomas@pahouse.net.

[Posted: Oct. 16, 2017]

10/23/2017