AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT OF AGENCY REGULATIONS.

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

Delaware Act for Reviewing State Agency Regulations

This act sets up a process where state agency regulations must be reviewed by a committee and reauthorized by the General Assembly to continue past their expiration date.

What This Bill Does

• Requires that all new state agency rules made in the year before October 31st will expire on June 30th of the following year unless the General Assembly says they can stay.
• Creates a committee called the Joint Committee on Oversight of Agency Regulations to review and oversee these rules and decide if they should be kept or let go.
• Sets up criteria for the committee to use when reviewing state agency regulations.
• Requires the committee to write reports, hold public hearings, and give recommendations to the General Assembly about whether each regulation should continue.
• If the committee thinks a rule should stay in place, it must create a bill to remove its expiration date.

Who It Names or Affects

• State agencies that make regulations
• The Joint Committee on Oversight of Agency Regulations
• Members of the General Assembly

Terms To Know

Joint Committee on Oversight of Agency Regulations

A group created by this act to review and oversee state agency regulations.

General Assembly

The legislative body in Delaware that makes laws and reauthorizes rules.

Limits and Unknowns

• This bill has not yet been signed into law by the governor.
• It does not specify what happens if a regulation expires without being reauthorized.

Official Summary Text

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT OF AGENCY REGULATIONS.
This Act requires that an enacted state agency regulation will automatically expire unless explicitly reauthorized by the General Assembly to continue. This Act creates the Joint Committee on Oversight of Agency Regulations (“Committee”) to engage in review and oversight of regulations adopted by State agencies and recommend to the General Assembly whether or not the regulations should be allowed to expire.

Like laws in states such as Colorado and Utah, this Act does all of the following:
(1) Requires that all regulations adopted by an agency during the 12-month period preceding each October 31 expire at 5:00 p.m. on the following June 30 unless the General Assembly enacts a law to remove the expiration of the regulation.
(2) Establishes criteria for the Committee’s review of State agency regulations.
(3) Establishes a process for the Committee’s review and oversight of State agency regulations, including the requirement of a staff report, public hearings, and Committee recommendations to the General Assembly.
(4) If the Committee recommends a regulation not be allowed to expire, requires the Committee to draft and introduce a bill that removes the expiration of each regulation the Committee recommends not be allowed to expire.
(5) The Committee Chair, Vice Chair, and members receive the same additional compensation as the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee.