Two weeks after legislators passed a law enabling more stringent legislative oversight of the rulemaking process of state agencies, the new law is already having the effect of delaying some new regulations.
The House and Senate passed House Bill 1565 on Nov. 16 during a special session, overriding outgoing Gov. Charlie Crists veto of the bill earlier this year. The new law states that new or modified rules that have the potential to have costs or impacts of $1 million over five years must get legislative approval before being enacted.
State agencies say it is too early to tell how or if the law will affect their respective regulatory bodies, but its clear the law is leading them to review new rules more carefully and to delay some rules until Gov.-elect Rick Scotts administration takes over.
The day after the law was enacted, Scott Boyd --executive director and general counsel for the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee, which provides legislative oversight for the state agencies -- sent a letter to agency heads outlining the new laws measures.
The statements of regulatory costs for new rules shall include an economic analysis showing whether the rule directly or indirectly is likely to have an adverse impact on economic growth, private-sector job creation or employment, or private-sector investment in excess of $1 million within five years after implementation, the letter reads in part.
With that in mind, state agencies are handling rules that may trigger the laws threshold for legislative approval with greater care. The Department of Community Affairs has already pulled back rule 9J5, which would have set minimum standards for energy efficiency and transportation concurrency in local government comprehensive plans.
Instead of rushing it, we decided to go ahead and stop pushing it and give the new administration a chance to review it, said DCA spokesperson James Miller.
Miller said that other DCA rules dealing with building codes and standards and land preservation were more technical in nature and not likely to trip the $1-million-over-five-years wire in the new law.
Other agencies, however, regulate multimillion-dollar industries and are more likely to be impacted by the law.
During a Public Services Commission meeting this week, staffers noted that their agency deals with utility companies worth billions of dollars, so they will likely be impacted by the new law.
It has the potential to impact the PSC and well work with the Legislature on it, PSC Commissioner Nathan Skop said.
The Office of Financial Regulation, which oversees banks and financial institutions, will almost certainly be affected, and a spokesperson said that its precise effect on the agency is yet to be determined.
In light of the new law, the Office reviewed a number of pending rules that are in various stages of the rule promulgation process. None of the rules that had been previously approved by the Financial Services Commission for publication in the Florida Administrative Weekly are impacted. With regard to rules that are currently in the rule development stage, it is too soon to tell whether the new law will impact these rules, said Flora Beal, communications director for the OFR.
The bill was criticized by environmental groups like the Audubon Society of Florida, which sent a letter to legislative leaders before the special session asking them to pull the bill from the agenda.
Similar to the OFRs take on the laws early returns, however, the Department for Environmental Protection says that it is reviewing its new rules but is still moving forward with them.
The Department has just begun its evaluation, and while it would be premature to speculate on any potential short- or long-term impacts, the Department has no immediate plans of withdrawing any currently proposed rules, said DEP spokesperson Dee Ann Miller.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
