Alaska State Legislature
News from the House Majority

Jerry Ritter, House Majority Press Secretary
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: (907) 465-3804
web site: http://www.akrepublicans.org
Actuality line: 1-800-478-6540

House Votes to Allow Legislature to Repeal Regulations

Constitutional Amendment Means Public Scrutiny of Regulations

For Immediate Release April 18, 1998 Contact: Rep. Norman Rokeberg at (907) 465-4968 or Rep. Jeannette James at (907) 465-3743.

Juneau – The Alaska House of Representatives Saturday adopted a proposed constitutional amendment which would allow lawmakers to scrutinize and repeal state department regulations. House Joint Resolution 2, sponsored by Representative Norman Rokeberg (R-Anchorage) and Representative Jeannette James (R-North Pole) would go before voters in next November's general election.

"In many cases, departments of state government have been either ignoring legislative directives or going far beyond the scope of legislative intent when they write regulations," said Rokeberg. "Once regulations go into effect they have all the force and effect of law. The bureaucracy may, and has, subverted the will of the Legislature creating regulations whose effects and consequences are different from the intent of laws adopted by Alaskans' elected representatives."

"Currently, the Legislature's only recourse for such unintended regulations is the expensive and time consuming process of rewriting the entire law," said Speaker of the House Gail Phillips (R-Homer). Speaker Phillips has been a prime mover behind the fight to grant the Legislature the power to repeal regulations. Speaker Phillips sponsored similar legislation in the 19th Alaska Legislature. "If a constituent calls with a problem concerning a regulation and the Department refuses to correct the problem, the only solution is a rewrite of the law. With this amendment, the Legislature can review the regulation and simply nullify it if it is found to be a bad regulation, saving a lot of time, money, and effort in the process," Phillips said.

"Alaska Administrative Code contains over 9500 pages of regulations, yet no elected official voted on any of those regulations, said James. "The public has no one to hold responsible for a bad regulation. In the final analysis, it is the job of Alaska's legislators to make laws, not the bureaucracy's. HJR 2 opens the process to public scrutiny," James said.

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Broadcasters note: Comments are available by calling the House Majority Actuality Line at (800) 478-6540.
= Jeannette James, 37 K = Norman Rokeberg, 54 K