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Senate Bill Would Regulate Regulators

Republican Senators want to crackdown on what they deem as overly burdensome regulation coming from state agencies. They’re introducing a new bill after a study from George Mason University said Ohio has nearly 250,000 regulatory restrictions in its code. The senators have a plan to regulate the regulators.

The new bill would require state agencies to compile their regulatory requirements to be reviewed by a panel of legislators - and then reduce those rules by 30% over the next four years.

Republican Senate President Larry Obhof says these restrictions hinder industries and business development.

“We have a process here that has been designed to allow new regulations instead of maybe as strenuously as possible requiring regulators maybe to explain why they need something and why we should enact it,” said Obhof.

If agencies don’t achieve 30% reduction, then they have to cut two regulations for every new one they want.

Democratic lawmakers counter that it’s not overregulation but underfunding of programs that can be blamed for a lagging economy.

Copyright 2018 The Statehouse News Bureau

Andy Chow is a general assignment state government reporter who focuses on environmental, energy, agriculture, and education-related issues. He started his journalism career as an associate producer with ABC 6/FOX 28 in Columbus before becoming a producer with WBNS 10TV.