Tuesday, March 13, 2018

House Committee OKs Bills Creating New Bureaucracies To Take Permit Reviews Away From DEP, Waive Penalties, Create Office of The Repealer, Cap Number Of Regulations

The House State Government Committee Tuesday approved bills taking permit reviews from DEP and other state agencies, creating an Office of the Repealer, putting a cap on the number of regulations, requiring the elimination of two regulation for every new regulation adopted by agencies and authorizing the repeal of a any regulation by a simple House/Senate resolution.
The Committee voted to report out the bills by party line votes, Republicans supporting.
The bills include--
-- Taking Permit Reviews Away From State Agencies Giving It To Third Parties: House Bill 1959 (Rothman-R-Cumberland) Establishes the Pennsylvania Permit Act which requires agencies to create and develop a navigable online permit tracking system and takes authority to issue certain permits away from state agencies like DEP and creates a new bureaucracy of third-party reviewers. (amended) Click Here for more.
-- New Office of The Repealer: House Bill 209 (Phillips-Hill-R-York): Establishes the Independent Office of the Repealer, a new bureaucracy to undertake an ongoing review of existing regulations; receive and process recommendations; and make recommendations to the General Assembly, the governor, and executive agencies for repeal.  An amendment to the bill places a cap on all regulations and requires agencies to delete two regulations for every new regulations agencies seek to adopt. It is modeled after policies adopted by the Trump Administration.
-- Repeal Any Regulation By Resolution: House Bill 1792 (Benninghoff-R-Mifflin) Gives the General Assembly the ability to repeal any state regulation in effect by a concurrent resolution by requiring a single vote in the Senate and House.  The process is modeled after a federal procedure used by the Trump Administration to repeal regulations (amended) (sponsor summary). Currently, the General Assembly can repeal any regulation by passing a new law which involves a more extensive review and several votes by the Senate and House.
This meeting was a continuation of a January 31 meeting of the Committee which reported out two other bills related to the Committee’s report on Regulatory Overreach--
-- Killing A Regulation By Doing Nothing: House Bill 1237 (Keefer-R-York) that would allow the General Assembly to kill an economically significant final regulation from any agency by doing nothing.
-- Regulatory Compliance Officers: House Bill 1960 (Ellis-R-Butler) which requires each agency to appoint a Regulatory Compliance Officer with the authority to waive fines and penalties if a permit holder attempts to comply.
Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) serves as Majority Chair of the Committee and can be contacted by sending email to: dmetcalf@pahousegop.com.  Rep. Matthew Bradford (D-Montgomery) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by sending email to: mbradford@pahouse.net.
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