House State Affairs committee introduces multiple study requests and rulemaking RSs

The House State Affairs Committee introduced multiple request statutes (RS) that the sponsors said will lead to hearings or bill drafts on topics including supervision requirements for electrical contractors, centralized electronic reporting to the Legislative Services Office (LSO), and several measures to change administrative-rule processes.

Representative Kyle Harris introduced RS 32,337, which he said "seeks to change the state statute regarding supervision for electrical contractors to bring it in line with what the promulgated rules ... are asking." Harris said the change focuses on supervision and is intended to allow journeyman electricians to supervise a larger number of apprentices more flexibly across residential job sites; he used the example of "1 journeyman and 6 apprentices" and said the change would "help houses get built faster."

Representative Scott presented RS 32,332, a narrower bill derived from a Legislative Services Office project. Scott said an LSO team identified roughly 370 reporting locations in law covering about 105 agencies and found that more than 20% of required reports appeared obsolete. The draft RS would require agencies to provide electronic copies of statutorily required reports to LSO and, when a statute does not set a submission date, set a default date of Dec. 15. Scott described the bill as a first step; he said the team removed several clearly obsolete code provisions as examples, including Code 56-263 and other one‑time reporting requirements.

Representative Vito Barbieri introduced several RSs aimed at reining in aspects of administrative rulemaking and restoring periodic review. He said RS 32,100 would allow expiration or "sunset" dates on administrative rules and that RS 32,098 and RS 32,099 would limit agency directors' rule-promulgation authority and establish processes for challenging final rules. For RS 32,099 the committee approved a friendly amendment to change July 1 effective dates to June 30 in the draft language; the sponsor and members confirmed the secretary would update the committee's SOP to match.

Other RS introductions during the hearing included RS 32,094 (a birth-certificate designation change brought by Representative Barbieri, derived from constituent concerns) and RS 3,294 (introduced with minimal detail on the record). Each RS introduced received a motion for introduction and was carried by voice vote.

Committee members generally moved to introduce the RSs without extended debate; motions to introduce were made by multiple members (for example, Representative Pahanka moved RS 32,337 and Representative Mickelson moved RS 32,332) and were approved by voice. Sponsors indicated hearings or further drafting will follow.

The committee adjourned after concluding consideration of these RSs and advancing House Bill 172 to the floor.