Here's how we can do that:

Reduce the sunset period for rules from 10 years to five

Having rules sunset (repealing them) if they aren’t periodically reviewed is a proven effective way to keep a state’s regulatory environment lighter and more up-to-date. Currently, each rule needs to be reviewed every 10 years. Reviewing them every five years would help find and discard outdated or unnecessary rules even faster.

Constrain the Rules Review Commission’s ability to approve high-cost rules without authorization from the General Assembly

Rules are made by executive branch agencies only with lawmaking power delegated to them by the General Assembly. If a new rule is proposed that would have be costly to the state’s private sector, then before it takes effect, it should be approved by the legislature.

Prohibit executive agencies from implementing any policy, guideline, or interpretive statement without first adopting it as a rule

Sometimes agencies have found that they can go outside the rulemaking process just by issuing memos or guidelines explaining how they choose to interpret the statutes they are to enforce. Agencies should be made to identify all these unofficial rules that function as actual rules — sometimes called “regulatory dark matter” — and either codify them as official rules or discard them.