The House State Government Committee Tuesday approved bills taking permit reviews from DEP and other state agencies, creating an Office of the Repealer, putting a cap on the number of regulations, requiring the elimination of two regulation for every new regulation adopted by agencies and authorizing the repeal of a any regulation by a simple House/Senate resolution.

The bills were reported out by party line votes, Republicans supporting.

The bills include--

-- Taking Permit Reviews Away From DEP, State Agencies Giving It To Third Parties: House Bill 1959 (Rothman-R-Cumberland) Establishes the Pennsylvania Permit Act which requires agencies to create and develop a navigable online permit tracking system and takes authority to issue certain permits away from state agencies like DEP and creates a new bureaucracy of third-party reviewers.  (amended) Click Here for more.

-- New Office of The Repealer: House Bill 209 (Phillips-Hill-R-York): Establishes the Independent Office of the Repealer, a new bureaucracy to undertake an ongoing review of existing regulations; receive and process recommendations; and make recommendations to the General Assembly, the governor, and executive agencies for repeal.  An amendment to the bill places a cap on all regulations and requires agencies to delete two regulations for every new regulations agencies seek to adopt.  It is modeled after policies adopted by the Trump Administration.

-- Repeal Any Regulation By Resolution: House Bill 1792 (Benninghoff-R-Mifflin) Gives the General Assembly the ability to repeal any state regulation in effect by a concurrent resolution by requiring a single vote in the Senate and House.  The process is modeled after a federal procedure used by the Trump Administration to repeal regulations (amended) (sponsor summary). Currently, the General Assembly can repeal any regulation by passing a new law which involves a more extensive review and several votes by the Senate and House.

This meeting was a continuation of a January 31 meeting of the Committee which reported out two other bills related to the Committee’s report on Regulatory Overreach--

-- Killing A Regulation By Doing Nothing: House Bill 1237 (Keefer-R-York) that would allow the General Assembly to kill an economically significant final regulation from any agency by doing nothing.

-- Regulatory Compliance Officers: House Bill 1960 (Ellis-R-Butler) which requires each agency to appoint a Regulatory Compliance Officer with the authority to waive fines and penalties if a permit holder attempts to comply.

Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) serves as Majority Chair of the Committee and can be contacted by sending email to: dmetcalf@pahousegop.com.  Rep. Matthew Bradford (D-Montgomery) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by sending email to: mbradford@pahouse.net.

NewsClip:

Editorial: Permits Still A Fundamental State Duty

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[Posted: March 13, 2018]

3/19/2018