NJBIA is strongly supporting today a bill that would bring more transparency and effectiveness to provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), the law that governs how state agencies create regulations.

Bill S-4373 (Scutari, D-22) would also create the Commission on Efficiency and Regulatory Review in the Office of Administrative Law to oversee those needed changes.

It is scheduled for a vote in the State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee today.

“While the APA was intended to make the rule-making process public and to take in public comments, the reality often does not meet the intended goals,” said NJBIA Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor.

“Too often, rules that go along with newly created laws are developed secretly by bureaucratic staff who draft language to regulate industries they don’t understand. The unfortunate result of this is the establishment of conditions that do not work in the real world.

“While the APA allows public comments on proposed rules, and the agencies are required to respond to those comments, the reality is that the APA largely prohibits making necessary changes to the proposed rules in response to those comments.

“This bill will make for a better process to yield better results for New Jersey residents,” Cantor said.

Some of the requirements of the bill include:

• A socio-economic impact statement that accompanies proposed rules to include an assessment of the proposed rule's effects on the State's economy;

• A cost-benefit analysis with proposed rules;

• State agencies to use the best available science, data, and studies when formulating the various rule-making impact statements that are required under law;

• The Office of Administrative Law to review and certify the adequacy of rulemaking impact statements;

• State agencies to file a statement of intent for each rule proposal at least 90 days prior to the formal notice of action for the rule proposal, and to accept public comment on the rule proposal;

• Allowing State agencies to extend existing rules with no changes or technical changes using an expedited process only if the rule extension proposal receives no adverse comments from the public.
• Making substantive changes to a rule proposal upon adoption if the potential changes are a logical outgrowth of the proposed rule; otherwise, a new rule must be adopted.

The Commission on Efficiency and Regulatory Review in the Office of Administrative Law established in the bill would review all proposed and adopted rules and regulations and operative Executive Orders issued by the Governor to:

• Assess their potential or actual effects on the State's economy;

• Determine whether their costs and other burdens on businesses, workers, and local governments outweigh their intended benefits;

• Establish a basis for providing recommendations to the Governor for the amendment, rescission, or repeal of any rules, regulations, or Executive Orders that unduly burden the State's businesses, workers, and local governments

“If this bill becomes law, costs will be saved, compliance will increase, litigation will decrease, and the goals of the law will be more easily met through regulation,” Cantor said.

“We thank Senate President Nick Scutari for his sponsorship of this legislation, and we will work with him and our business colleagues to ensure a swift passage.”