Section 745.2 - Legislative intent(a) The General Assembly has enacted a large number of statutes and has conferred on boards, commissions, departments and agencies within the executive branch of government the authority to adopt rules and regulations to implement those statutes. The General Assembly has found that this delegation of its authority has resulted in regulations being promulgated without undergoing effective review concerning cost benefits, duplication, inflationary impact and conformity to legislative intent. The General Assembly finds that it must establish a procedure for oversight and review of regulations adopted pursuant to this delegation of legislative power in order to curtail excessive regulation and to require the executive branch to justify its exercise of the authority to regulate before imposing hidden costs upon the economy of Pennsylvania. It is the intent of this act to establish a method for ongoing and effective legislative review and oversight in order to foster executive branch accountability; to provide for primary review by a commission with sufficient authority, expertise, independence and time to perform that function; to provide ultimate review of regulations by the General Assembly; and to assist the Governor, the Attorney General and the General Assembly in their supervisory and oversight functions. To the greatest extent possible, this act is intended to encourage the resolution of objections to a regulation and the reaching of a consensus among the commission, the standing committees, interested parties and the agency. (c) This act is intended to improve State rulemaking by creating procedures to analyze the availability of more flexible regulatory approaches for small businesses in accordance with the following findings:(1) A vibrant and growing small business sector is critical to creating jobs in a dynamic economy.(2) Small businesses bear a disproportionate share of regulatory costs and burdens.(3) Fundamental changes that are needed in the regulatory and enforcement culture of agencies to make them more responsive to small business can be made without compromising the statutory missions of the agencies.(4) When adopting regulations to protect the health, safety and economic welfare of the Commonwealth, agencies should seek to achieve statutory goals as effectively and efficiently as possible without imposing unnecessary burdens on small business.(5) Uniform regulatory and reporting requirements can impose unnecessary and disproportionately burdensome demands, including legal, accounting and consulting costs upon small businesses with limited resources.(6) The failure to recognize differences in the scale and resources of regulated businesses can adversely affect competition in the marketplace, discourage innovation and restrict improvements in productivity.(7) Unnecessary regulations create entry barriers in many industries and discourage potential entrepreneurs from introducing beneficial products and processes.(8) The practice of treating all regulated businesses similarly may lead to inefficient use of regulatory agency resources, enforcement problems and, in some cases, to actions inconsistent with the legislative intent of health, safety, environmental and economic welfare legislation.(9) Alternative regulatory approaches which do not conflict with the stated objective of applicable statutes may be available to minimize the significant economic impact of rules on small businesses.(10) The process by which State regulations are developed and adopted should be reformed to require agencies to solicit the ideas and comments of small businesses, to examine the impact of proposed and existing rules on such businesses and to review the continued need for existing rules. (d) This act is not intended to create a right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a person against another person or against the Commonwealth, its agencies or its officers.
Amended by P.L. 657 2012 No. 76, § 1, eff. 8/28/2012.1982, June 25, P.L. 633, No. 181, § 2, effective March 1, 1983. Reenacted 1986, Feb. 21, P.L. 47, No. 16, § 1, imd. effective. Reenacted and amended 1989, June 30, P.L. 73, No. 19, § 1, retroactive effective Dec. 31, 1988. Amended 1997, June 25, P.L. 252, No. 24, § 1, imd. effective.