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House amends and passes bill requiring agencies to assess small-business impacts of rulemaking
Summary
The House amended and passed HB 64 to require state agencies to assess impacts on small businesses (defined as 50 employees or fewer) when making administrative rules; an amendment narrowed language to focus on small businesses. The bill passed 73–0 and will move to the Senate.
The House passed House Bill 64 on Monday after debate and an amendment clarifying the bill’s focus on small businesses.
Representative Steve Clark, sponsor of HB 64, said the bill requires agencies to identify and assess the anticipated impact of proposed administrative rules on small businesses (50 employees or fewer) and to publish that assessment in the agency's rule-assessment guide. Clark said the change is intended to make rulemaking more transparent for a sector that often lacks the capacity to track regulatory changes.
Representative Holdaway asked how small businesses would be identified and whether the change would require agencies to directly notify affected businesses; Clark said small business would be defined as organizations with 50 or fewer employees, and the assessment would be published in existing agency rule-assessment publications rather than creating new direct-notification burdens.
Representative Becker offered an amendment to delete language that would have broadly applied the requirement to "businesses in general," keeping the bill focused on small firms; the amendment passed on the floor. After debate the amended HB 64 passed 73–0 (2 absent) and will be referred to the Senate.
What it means: Agencies will add small-business impact assessments to their rulemaking materials, which sponsors said will improve transparency while avoiding new notification burdens on business owners.
