Regulations.

(1) The Administrative Procedure Act governs the procedure for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law. The office is required to review the regulation, among other things, for "necessity" which is defined to mean that the record of the rulemaking proceeding demonstrates the need for the regulation by substantial evidence. This bill would revise the definition of "necessity" to require that the need for the regulation be demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence. (2) The act requires the office to initiate, at the request of a standing, select, or joint committee of the Legislature, a priority review of an existing regulation, that uses prescribed procedures to determine whether the regulation continues to satisfy specified standards. This bill would additionally require the office to initiate a priority review of a regulation at the request of a chair or vice chair of those legislative committees. (3) The act authorizes any interested person to obtain a judicial declaration as to the validity of any regulation or order of repeal by bringing an action for declaratory relief in superior court, as specified. The act authorizes the court to declare a regulation to be invalid for, among other things, a substantial failure to comply with the act or if the agency's determination that a regulation is reasonably necessary to effectuate the purpose of the statute, court decision, or other law is not supported by substantial evidence. This bill would require, instead of authorize, a court to invalidate a regulation if the specified conditions exist. The bill would require that an agency's determination that a regulation is reasonably necessary to effectuate the purpose of a statute, court decision, or other law be supported by a preponderance of the evidence. The bill would require that a court invalidate a regulation upon a determination that it exceeds the scope of authority delegated to the agency by statute or, where the plain meaning of the language of the authorizing statute is determined to be ambiguous, the regulation is not consistent with the legislative intent in enacting the statute that is being interpreted, implemented, or made specific.