Senate Bill 23 wins committee backing to increase administrative-regulation transparency

Chair Rocky Adams convened the Licensing & Occupations Committee and the panel voted to give Senate Bill 23 a favorable recommendation to the Senate floor.

Senator Steve West, sponsor of Senate Bill 23, told the committee the measure "does 2 main things." The bill would allow the committee (through its chair) to request that a cabinet agency present proposed administrative regulations and explain "what the regulations are and what they do," and it would require any cabinet representative who appears to have the authority to "defer or respond to a deficiency," West said.

The bill’s sponsor framed the measure as an increase in transparency. "It's just more transparency, more transparency sooner in the process," West said, adding that the administration requested notice before being pulled before the committee and had asked for five days' notice.

Committee members raised questions about whether a notice requirement should be added and how a notice window would interact with the cabinet’s current ability to request a deferral. West said the staff and he were discussing whether a five‑day notice requirement should apply and whether a deferral request would be subject to the same notice requirement; he said the administration’s five‑day request could be addressed with a floor amendment.

Senators on the committee described the tool as rarely used but important when needed. West said the committee expects to use the authority infrequently: "This is rarely something we even talk about. It's 1 in a thousand regulations that this applies to." He also said the bill clarifies responsibilities that were previously unwritten.

Several senators recorded their support before the final vote. Senator Chambers Armstrong explained a yes vote, saying she was "looking forward to seeing the notice revisions" and that the changes under discussion comforted her. Senator Berg and Senator Douglas also said they would vote in favor. During the roll call on final passage in committee, Senators Higdon, Howell, Meredith, Nunn, Chambers Armstrong, Berg, Douglas and Chair Rocky Adams were recorded as voting aye. The chair announced that "Senate Bill 23 passes with favorable expression and we'll move to the senate floor."

The committee did not adopt a specific notice period during the meeting; the sponsor said the administration’s request for five days is under consideration and could be implemented by a floor amendment. West and committee members repeatedly described the bill as creating a statutory notice and cooperation duty for cabinet agencies but said it does not create additional judicial enforcement beyond existing legislative tools (for example, filing implementing legislation later), noting that broader enforcement depends on separate statutes and measures such as Senate Bill 65, which West described earlier as a vehicle used to declare regulations deficient in the committee.

The committee adjourned after approving the favorable recommendation; the bill now advances to the full Senate for consideration and possible floor amendment on notice.