§ 1-23-115 — Regulations requiring assessment reports; report contents; exceptions; preliminary assessment reports.

(A) Upon written request by two members of the General Assembly, made before submission of a promulgated regulation to the General Assembly for legislative review, a regulation that has a substantial economic impact must have an assessment report prepared pursuant to this section and in accordance with the procedures contained in this article. In addition to any other method as may be provided by the General Assembly, the legislative committee to which the promulgated regulation has been referred, by majority vote, may send a written notification to the promulgating agency informing the agency that the committee cannot approve the promulgated regulation unless an assessment report is prepared and provided to the committee. The written notification tolls the running of the one-hundred-ten-day legislative review period, and the period does not begin to run again until an assessment report prepared in accordance with this article is submitted to the committee. Upon receipt of the assessment report, additional days must be added to the days remaining in the one-hundred-ten-day review period, if less than twenty days, to equal twenty days. A copy of the assessment report must be provided to each member of the committee. (B) A state agency must submit to the Office of Research and Statistics of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, a preliminary assessment report on regulations which have a substantial economic impact. Upon receiving this report the office may require additional information from the promulgating agency, other state agencies, or other sources. A state agency shall cooperate and provide information to the office on requests made pursuant to this section. The office shall prepare and publish a final assessment report within sixty days after the public hearing held pursuant to Section 1-23-110. The office shall forward the final assessment report and a summary of the final report to the promulgating agency. (C) The preliminary and final assessment reports required by this section must disclose the effects of the proposed regulation on the public health and environmental welfare of the community and State and the effects of the economic activities arising out of the proposed regulation. Both the preliminary and final reports required by this section may include: (1) a description of the regulation, the purpose of the regulation, the legal authority for the regulation, and the plan for implementing the regulation; (2) a determination of the need for and reasonableness of the regulation as determined by the agency based on an analysis of the factors listed in this subsection and the expected benefit of the regulation; (3) a determination of the costs and benefits associated with the regulation and an explanation of why the regulation is considered to be the most cost-effective, efficient, and feasible means for allocating public and private resources and for achieving the stated purpose; (4) the effect of the regulation on competition; (5) the effect of the regulation on the cost of living and doing business in the geographical area in which the regulation would be implemented; (6) the effect of the regulation on employment in the geographical area in which the regulation would be implemented; (7) the source of revenue to be used for implementing and enforcing the regulation; (8) a conclusion on the short-term and long-term economic impact upon all persons substantially affected by the regulation, including an analysis containing a description of which persons will bear the costs of the regulation and which persons will benefit directly and indirectly from the regulation; (9) the uncertainties associated with the estimation of particular benefits and burdens and the difficulties involved in the comparison of qualitatively and quantitatively dissimilar benefits and burdens. A determination of the need for the regulation shall consider qualitative and quantitative benefits and burdens; (10) the effect of the regulation on the environment and public health; (11) the detrimental effect on the environment and public health if the regulation is not implemented. An assessment report must not consider benefits or burdens on out-of-state political bodies or businesses. The assessment of benefits and burdens which cannot be precisely quantified may be expressed in qualitative terms. This subsection must not be interpreted to require numerically precise cost-benefit analysis. At no time is an agency required to include items (4) through (8) in a preliminary assessment report or statement of the need and reasonableness; however, these items may be included in the final assessment report prepared by the office. (D) If information required to be included in the assessment report materially changes at any time before the regulation is approved or disapproved by the General Assembly, the agency must submit the corrected information to the office which must forward a revised assessment report to the Legislative Council for submission to the committees to which the regulation was referred during General Assembly review. (E) An assessment report is not required on: (1) regulations specifically exempt from General Assembly review by Section 1-23-120; however, if any portion of a regulation promulgated to maintain compliance with federal law is more stringent than federal law, then that portion is not exempt from this section; (2) emergency regulations filed in accordance with Section 1-23-130; however, before an emergency regulation may be refiled pursuant to Section 1-23-130, an assessment report must be prepared in accordance with this section; (3) regulations which control the hunting or taking of wildlife including fish or setting times, methods, or conditions under which wildlife may be taken, hunted, or caught by the public, or opening public lands for hunting and fishing.

Legislative History

HISTORY: 1992 Act No. 507, SECTION 1; 1993 Act No. 181, SECTION 12; 1996 Act No. 411, SECTIONS 5, 6; 2025 Act No. 13 (S.164), SECTION 1, eff May 8, 2025. Code Commissioner's Note At the direction of the Code Commissioner, references in this section to the offices of the former State Budget and Control Board, Office of the Governor, or other agencies, were changed to reflect the transfer of them to the Department of Administration or other entities, pursuant to the directive of the South Carolina Restructuring Act, 2014 Act No. 121, SECTION 5(D)(1). Editor's Note 2025 Act No. 13, SECTION 6, provides as follows: "The provisions of Chapter 23, Title 1, as amended by this act, are applicable to regulations filed with the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives on and after January 14, 2025." Effect of Amendment 2025 Act No. 13, SECTION 1, in (A), in the third and fourth sentences, substituted "one-hundred-ten-day" for "one hundred-twenty-day".