(1) We recommend that the "process
to be used by agencies, the governor, and the legislature to identify
and prioritize rules and related laws and programs that will be subject
to legislative review" be as follows:
This process applies to the rules
subject to review under Minnesota Statutes, section 14.3691,
which states in pertinent part: "An entity whose rules are
scheduled for review under this section must report to the governor
and the appropriate committees of the
legislature . . . . The speaker of the house of
representatives and the senate committee on rules and administration
shall designate the appropriate committees to receive these reports.
The report must: (1) list any rules that the entity recommends for
repeal; (2) list and briefly describe the rationale for rules that the
entity believes should remain in effect; and (3) suggest any changes
in rules that would improve the agency's ability to meet the
regulatory objectives prescribed by the legislature, while reducing
any unnecessary burdens on regulated parties."
Agencies required to report on their
rules should report separately on each chapter of their rules. For
most rule chapters that should remain in effect, the report would be a
paragraph or two on the continuing viability of the rules chapter.
Where appropriate, this would list parts that need updating and when
this is anticipated. The report might be more in depth for one or two
chapters, but this would happen only if the program or issues related
to the rule chapters has taken a recent controversial or problematic
turn.
Legislative committees would
identify and prioritize rules for review after considering:
the agency reports;
input from the public; and
legislators’ experience and
opinions.
Legislative committees would then
select for review only one set of rules per agency, except in rare
circumstances, where more than one set of rules for an agency merit
legislative attention and scrutiny.
(2) We recommend that the "process
by which the legislature will review rules and related laws and programs
identified under clause (1)" be as follows:
The legislative committee would
review the rules, along with the underlying state statutes, related
federal statutes and rules, and the agency program that implements the
statutes and rules.
The legislative committee would hold
hearings to conduct the review and would do so early in the
legislative session. The committee would take testimony from the
agency, regulated parties, and any other interested persons.
The legislative committee would
consider recommendations on whether continued regulation is needed,
and if so, what can be done to improve the effectiveness of the rules
and reduce the burden of the rules while still accomplishing the
purposes of the rules.
(3) Our estimate of the "agency and
legislative time and resources required for review of rules and related
laws and programs under the processes recommended under clauses (1) and
(2)" is:
We estimate that the agency time to
prepare the report under item (1) to range from about
10 hours for agencies with very few rules to 100 hours or
more for agencies with many rules.
We estimate the legislator and
legislative staff time to identify and prioritize rules for review to
range from 10 to 20 hours.
We estimate that review of a set of
rules would entail from one to three legislative hearings, with the
corresponding legislator, legislative staff, and agency staff time.
(4) Our estimate of the "effect of
possible repeal of agency rules on the state budget and any loss of
benefits to citizens of the state resulting from such a repeal" is:
We are not able to estimate the
effect of possible repeal of a set of rules. This depends too much on
the particulars of each set of rules. The legislative committee
conducting the review of a set of rules would be in the best position
to consider and quantify the effect of the repeal of a set of rules if
the committee is considering recommending the repeal of the rules.
Minnesota Legislature
