S.L. 2011-398 (Senate Bill 781) - Regulatory Reform Act of 2011

• Establishes principles for rule-making requiring agencies to adopt only necessary rules, minimize compliance burdens, ensure clarity, avoid redundancy, base rules on sound science, and achieve regulatory objectives cost-effectively.

• Creates the Rules Modification and Improvement Program administered by the Office of State Budget and Management to conduct annual reviews of existing rules and solicit public input on unnecessary or burdensome regulations.

• Restricts environmental agencies from adopting rules more restrictive than federal standards unless required by serious threats to public health/safety, legislative mandate, budgetary changes, federal regulations, or court order.

• Restructures contested case proceedings by eliminating agency review of administrative law judge decisions; administrative law judges now issue final decisions rather than recommended decisions that require agency approval.

• Lowers the threshold for substantial economic impact analysis from $3 million to $500,000 in a 12-month period and requires agencies to consider alternatives and post proposed rules on websites for public comment.