Committee hears push for REINS-style review of major regulations

Summary

Policy groups told the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight Committee that Georgia should require legislative approval of major agency rules, use independent economic analysis and adopt rolling sunset reviews; the committee will hear HR 257 at a future meeting and presenters will circulate materials.

The Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight Committee heard presentations urging a REINS-style law that would require the legislature to approve major agency rules, adopt routine sunset reviews of regulations and require economic analyses of proposed rules, presenters said.

Policy analysts from the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and advocates from the Pacific Legal Foundation and Americans for Prosperity Georgia told the committee that stronger legislative oversight and periodic review would reduce outdated or duplicative rules and give elected lawmakers a role in approving regulations with large economic effects.

"Between the federal code and the Georgia code, there are over 1,200,000 combined regulatory restrictions on the people of Georgia," Jay Thomas Perdue, a policy analyst with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, said during the presentation. He said Georgia's code has grown steadily since the secretary of state's office began tracking regulations in 1965 and that the Georgians First…

Committee hears push for REINS-style review of major regulations

Summary

Subscribe to keep reading