On June 10, Republicans on the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee reported out bills putting more roadblocks into adopting needed environmental and other regulations because they have too many words and establishing a third party permit review program. 

The legislation includes--

-- Repeal 2 Regs For Every New One:  Senate Bill 119 (DiSanto-R-Cumberland) would amend the Regulatory Review Act to require the arbitrary repeal of at least two existing regulatory requirements for every new requirement proposed by any state agency.  This “regulatory replacement request” must be approved by the Independent Regulatory Review or by a majority vote in both the Senate and House before a regulation is promulgated.

House Republicans passed their own version of this bill-- House Bill 1055 (Klunk-R- York)-- that is now in this same Committee.  Read more here.

[Editor’s Note: This bill is simply a political statement.  Arbitrarily saying there are “too many” “shall” and “must” statements in regulations and limiting their number is like saying a legislator should be limited on the number of bills they introduce or that their bills have too many words. 

[It completely forgets it is not the number of “shalls” and “musts,” it’s how the regulation achieves the goal it is trying to accomplish, the lives it is trying to save, the pollution it is attempting to limit and how it protects public safety based on the state and/or federal law requiring the regulation. 

[It adds bureaucracy and cost to state government.  It, of course, isn’t paid for.

[BTW, this legislation has too many words.  For every new word in this bill, two words in another law should be erased, you pick the law.]

-- Office Of The Repealer:  Senate Bill 251 (Phillips-Hill-R-York) would create a new bureaucracy-- Independent Office of the Repealer-- to review existing regulations from all state agencies and make recommendations to the General Assembly and Governor for the repeal or revision.

The only criteria offered in the bill for this review are--

-- Unreasonable, unduly burdensome, detrimental to economic well-being, duplicative, onerous, defective or in conflict with another statute or regulation; and

--  Defying a common sense approach to government.

The evaluation is not required to calculate the economic, environmental or public health benefits derived from a regulation, whether the regulation is required by state or federal law or other criteria.

The bill also requires the repeal of at least two existing regulatory requirements for every new one proposed.

House Republicans passed their own version of this bill-- House Bill 1055 (Klunk-R- York)-- that is now in this same Committee.  Read more here.

[Editor’s Note: This bill is simply a political statement. The House and Senate oversight committees and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission now have the authority to review regulations.  This bill is admitting the House and Senate cannot do their jobs and have to create yet more bureaucracy and procedures to make up for their failings.  It adds bureaucracy and cost to state government. It, of course, isn’t paid for.

-- Expensive Third Party Permit Reviews: Senate Bill 252 (Phillips-Hill-R-York) would require all state agencies to establish a third party permit review program to provide for the review of permits delayed beyond arbitrary deadlines set in the legislation.  The bill also requires the establishment of a permit tracking system with additional bureaucratic requirements.

House Republicans passed their own version of this bill-- House Bill 509 (Rothman-R- Cumberland)-- that is now in this same Committee. Read more here.

[Editor’s Note: This bill is simply a political statement.  It is merely a political statement. Across state agencies there are thousands of different types of permits, each with their own requirements, review times meeting hundreds of state and federal laws that can vary from one page to many pages. The third party permit review program lacks any conflict of interest requirements that would prevent, for example, a reviewer from reviewing their own permit application and lots of other weaknesses. It adds bureaucracy, cost to state government.  It, of course, isn’t paid for. This bill simply would not work in the real world.]

-- Shielding Violators From Enforcement: Senate Bill 253 (Phillips-Hill) would create yet more bureaucracy in each state agency called an Agency Regulatory Compliance Officer to arbitrarily establish policies for waiving fines or penalties for violators of regulations and law administered by the agency.  The only requirement in the bill for a violator to be eligible for a waiver of fines or penalties is for “the regulated entity must report to the regulatory compliance officer the steps it has taken or will take to remedy the violation.”

The Regulatory Compliance Officer is authorized to issue an opinion within 20 business days of a person’s duties under a regulation for the agency and that opinion, or the failure to provide an opinion, could be used as a “complete defense” in any enforcement proceeding initiated by the agency and evidence of good faith conduct in other civil or criminal proceeding.

So not only would agency enforcement actions be blunted, any actions taken by citizens to enforce environmental or other statutes would be as well.

House Republicans passed their own version of this bill-- House Bill 762 (O’Neal-R- Washington)-- that is now in this same Committee.  Read more here.

[Editor’s Note: This bill is simply a political statement. Agencies, environmental agencies in particular, would be swamped by requests by those they are regulating so they could obtain the enforcement shield of the opinion or the opinion not issued by the Regulatory Compliance Officer. It adds bureaucracy, cost to state government.  It, of course, isn’t paid for. This bill simply would not work in the real world.]

Killing Regs By Doing Nothing

On May 27, the Republicans on this same Committee reported out Senate Bill 5 (DiSanto-R-Cumberland) that authorizes the General Assembly to kill any regulation by doing nothing.  Read more here.

House Republicans passed their own version of this bill-- House Bill 806 (Keefer-R- York)-- that is now in this same Committee.  Read more here.

[Editor’s Note: Another political statement.]

3 Front War On The Environment

This is all part of a three front war conservative Pennsylvania Republicans have been fighting against environmental programs and funding for the last decade--

-- Starving environmental agencies for funding so they have to cut staff and programs and then turn around and say they can’t do their job [they did this again on April 21];

-- Adding even more layers of bureaucracy and procedures to block environmental regulations, reduce environmental standards and give regulated entities more control over these programs [they’ve done this before too, several times]; and

-- Using every chance they get to cut funding to support community-based projects to protect and restore the environment, improve recreation opportunities and land conservation efforts that real people-- voters-- overwhelmingly support [the Senate Bill 327 is the latest attempt which Gov. Wolf vetoed].

Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) serves as Majority Chair of the Committee and can be contacted by calling 717-787-4651, via fax to: 717-264-6100 or via a contact form on his website.  Sen. Wayne Fontana (D-Allegheny) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by calling 717-787-5300 or send email to: fontana@pasenate.com.

Related Articles This Week:

-- House Republicans Move Bill Taking Away DEP’s Authority To Enact Carbon Pollution Reduction Program For Power Plants

-- House Republicans Move Amended Bill To Focus On Recycling Of Post-Use Polymers Not Mixed With Garbage

Related Articles:

-- Senate Republicans Move Bill Out Of Committee To Kill Regulations By Doing Nothing

-- Analysis: What If The Senate And House Had To Adopt Laws Like DEP Adopts Regulations?

-- House Republicans Pass Bills To Kill Regulations By Doing Nothing, Waive Penalties, Provide Defenses To Violators

-- House Passes Bill To Require Repeal Of 2 Regulations For Every New Regulation Adopted, Create Duplicate $695,000 Office Of The Repealer

-- New PEC Podcast: Fmr Gov. Tom Ridge On Conservatives Being Out Of Touch On The Environment

-- Op-Ed:My Fellow Conservatives Are Out Of Touch On The Environment - Fmr. Gov. Tom Ridge

[Posted: June 10, 2020]

6/15/2020