(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that he is seeking to eliminate approximately a thousand pages of state regulations that have been identified as obsolete, duplicative, excessively burdensome, or otherwise ineffective or unnecessary, in a major effort to make Connecticut’s regulations more streamlined, readable and user-friendly for citizens, especially small businesses.
“We’re committed to making state government more efficient, more transparent and more responsive. Streamlining regulations and repealing those that are just too burdensome or no longer needed will help in our efforts to be more user-friendly for both citizens and businesses,” Governor Malloy said.
The Governor has submitted legislation to the General Assembly (House Bill 5049
– An Act Eliminating Unnecessary Government Regulation) on his proposal, which is currently pending before the Government Administration and Elections Committee.
Some examples of regulations Governor Malloy is proposing to eliminate include:
- An outdated and discriminatory Department of Labor regulation of unknown age that prohibits women from working alone between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.
- Several outdated and conflicting regulations contained within the Department of Administrative Services that have been unnecessary since the adoption of the state building code in the late 1980s
- A regulation regarding the grading of Connecticut-grown apples that duplicates USDA regulations and has never been used
- Multiple Department of Economic & Community Development regulations dealing with programs repealed by the legislature many years ago, some as far back as the late 1980s
- A Department of Energy & Environmental Protection regulation setting forth detailed standards on the use of a pesticide that has not been used in Connecticut since the late 1970s and is otherwise regulated by the department’s more up-to-date pesticide regulations
- Housing regulations dealing with programs that have not been funded by the General Assembly in decades
- Dozens of other regulations pertaining to statutes that have long since been repealed
The Governor’s legislation is the result of a public review period
he initiated in October 2013 through Executive Order No. 37, which invited the public to submit to him their comments on state regulations, and also required each state agency to conduct independent reviews of all regulations under their jurisdiction. The resulting comments received from the public and the reports submitted by state agencies can be downloaded online at www.governor.ct.gov/regsreview
Along with seeking to eliminate unnecessary regulations, the bill also streamlines the state’s regulation process to facilitate more frequent updating of state agency rules.
“The public comments and agency reports made clear that eliminating unnecessary government regulation is just the first step,” Governor Malloy said. “Government plays a critical role in regulation. However, we must constantly monitor those regulations to ensure they are up to date and comport with existing programs. Agencies should be provided the tools for making necessary changes in a quick and efficient manner, while maintaining the same level of public input as exists today.”
One of the reasons that unnecessary regulations accumulate in Connecticut is that all regulatory changes must be approved by a committee of the General Assembly before they go into effect. The Governor’s legislation will eliminate the need for lengthy and cumbersome committee review in certain cases by creating an expedited process for making noncontroversial regulatory changes. Legislative regulatory review committees do not exist in many other states, and a similar practice at the federal level was determined to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in 1983, though it is permitted under the Connecticut constitution.
In 2012, Governor Malloy introduced legislation, which he later signed into law
, ordering all state agency regulations to be made easily available to the public and published on the internet. As a result, all state regulations are now available online at www.ct.gov/eregulations.