THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 3, 1995 TAG: 9503030419
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Opponents of a measure requiring legislative approval of all rules proposed by fisheries, environmental and other agencies before they become law were successful Thursday in delaying a House committee vote on the measure.
They may have crafted a compromise with the chairman of that committee that would allow more scrutiny before the bill becomes law.
Marine Fisheries Commission Chairman Robert V. Lucas told the House Judiciary I Committee that requiring the General Assembly to review and approve fisheries rules before they can be implemented would be devastating to the marine fish populations along the state's coast.
The bill ``takes five-gallon buckets of politics and puts them back in Marine Fisheries Commission decisions,'' Lucas said. ``This bill is a terrible mistake.''
The package of bills seeks to make sweeping changes in the way state agencies and their governing boards and commissions adopt regulations affecting not only marine fisheries rules but rules governing coastal development, sewage disposal, purification of drinking water and some utilities commission actions.
Besides requiring legislative approval of all rules passed by state boards, the bills would require an economic analysis of proposed rules with an estimated $5 million affect on the economy and would require state agencies to give additional advanced notice of potential new rules.
On Tuesday, lobbyists for the state's businesses and industries told the committee that regulatory reform measures before the legislature would lead to a more careful review of proposed rules before they become law.
The judiciary committee was scheduled Thursday to debate amendments to the bills and, possibly, vote to send them to the House floor for debate, but the panel heard from five opponents of some of the measures.
Lucas said that he supports and has worked to provide additional advanced notice of rules and analyses of the economic and socialeffects of rules before the Marine Fisheries Commission, but, he said, the proposed bill would only add more bureaucracy and time to the process of making rules.
``If we make a mistake. . . you can undo it in this body,'' he said. ``For every wrong there is a remedy and this is no remedy.''
Joining Lucas in opposing the legislative review measure were Richen Brame, executive director of the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association, Steve Levitas, a deputy secretary of the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, and representatives of other state agencies.
Levitas said legislative oversight is ``a dramatic change in the way we do business.''
Opponents say the measure appears to be an attempt to weaken environmental protection measures by giving lobbyists an additional way to kill regulations which they oppose.
But Rep. David Redwine, D-Brunswick County, the sponsor of the bills, said Thursday that is not the case.
``These bills are not directed at the heart of the environmental regulations,'' he told the judiciary committee. ``You can be for this bill and you can be for the environment.''
The reform measures have broad support in the House of Representatives.
Some legislative observers predicted that the House judiciary committee, which is scheduled to vote on the measure next week, will likely approve the measures with few changes.
But late Thursday afternoon, some sources said a compromise, which would refer the legislative oversight portion of the bills to a subcommittee for further study, may be in the works.
Some legislators, such as Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, have called for a moratorium on administrative rules, similar to the one in place for the Marine Fisheries Commission, while state lawmakers study the administrative rule-making procedure. by CNB