Regulatory Reform: 30-Day ‘Fast-Track’ Concerns Business

03.13.2014
Issues & Policies

The legislature's Government Administration and Elections Committee is considering a number of bills to improve Connecticut's regulatory climate by improving how state regulations are adopted.

Some of the bills would identify existing regulations that should be modified or repealed. Others would improve the regulatory adoption process to ensure better regulations in the future.

One such bill, HB 5049, would allow “non-controversial” regulations to skip the current adoption process unless someone files an objection within 30 days of the agency issuing a notice. If no objection is filed, the regulations would immediately become final and enforceable.

CBIA believes that by itself, this bill could lead to a worse regulatory climate without broader reforms such as:

  • A new electronic notification system currently being worked on through the secretary of the state’s office needs to be finalized, marketed and tested for effectiveness in quickly notifying interested individuals of proposed regulations
  • Ensuring all agencies work collaboratively, with affected stakeholders in the early stages of developing regulations so that those stakeholders have the opportunity to learn about the proposals long before a potential 30-day, “speak now or forever hold your peace” clock starts ticking. This approach also would increase the likelihood that new regulatory proposals could be considered non-controversial and thus eligible for the fast-track adoption process.

Fortunately, another bill on the committee's agenda, SB 349, would help ensure this collaborative approach by codifying Governor Malloy's directives on regulatory efficiency expressed in his Executive Order 37 issued last October.

This proposal also provides additional measures to ensure that future regulations are truly necessary, written in a manner to promote understanding and compliance, and constructed with the idea of trying to achieve clear regulatory goals in the least burdensome manner.

CBIA has urged the committee to merge these two bills into a single, comprehensive and coordinated regulation reform proposal.   

For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Brown at 860.244.1926 | eric.brown@cbia.com | @CBIAericb

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