Virginia House of Delegates Speaker of the House Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) announced on Friday afternoon that more than 1,200 regulations have been identified for elimination under a regulatory reform bill passed by the General Assembly in 2018. A preliminary report was sent by Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne, explaining to leaders in the General Assembly that the state government has revealed a “baseline count” of regulations not specifically required by state or federal law within the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) and the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).
The initial report, sent in a letter by Secretary Layne, identified 4,947 regulations within DPOR and DCJS that are not specifically required by state or federal law. House Bill 883 requires that 25 percent, or 1,237, of those regulatory requirements to be cut by 2021.
“I want to thank Secretary Layne for providing this update nearly a year ahead of schedule,” said Speaker Cox in a news release.
“When we set out to craft this legislation we hoped to eliminate some of the burdens facing entrepreneurs and small businesses. Now, we have a concrete number of how many regulations we will be able to eliminate from these two departments. I am confident that at the completion of this pilot program we will have not only improved our regulatory climate but we will have laid the groundwork for similar cuts to be made across other departments,” Cox added.
“Reducing regulatory requirements on small businesses and entrepreneurs has been a top priority of mine in the General Assembly, and it’s heartening to see the significant progress we made this year,” said Delegate Michael Webert (R-Fauquier) the patron of the legislation instituting the regulatory reduction pilot program.
“We have laid the foundation for a systematic review and reduction of unnecessary regulatory requirements across state government,” he added.
In the 2019 General Assembly session, the Republican majority will begin to lessen the burden on citizens and provide for a better working Commonwealth.