Seeking to reduce the size and scope of government, members of a state Senate committee have approved several measures that would restrain the growth of state regulations and repeal many existing regulations.

“It’s our job in the Legislature to rein in the administrative state to make sure that restrictions, that regulations, are appropriate and that they’re fair, that they’re necessary and that they’re not unduly burdensome,” said state Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair.

According to the 2024 edition of “Snapshots of State Regulations,” issued by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Oklahoma is the 17th-most regulated state in the country with 142,313 regulations on the books. In comparison, Idaho, the nation’s least-regulated state, has just 31,497 regulations in place.

Senate Bil 318, by Bergstrom, begins the process of paring down Oklahoma’s administrative state through the creation of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2025.

The bill would create a Legislative Economic Analysis Unit (LEAU) within the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT), which would be tasked with determining the economic impact of proposed state agency regulations. Under the bill, any regulations with an economic impact of $1 million or more over a five-year period would require approval by a vote of both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature to become law.

State Sen. Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, argued the bill creates an impossible workload for state officials.

“The amount of administrative responsibility in preparing reports, doing studies and submitting all these reports to the correct people, it seems like it’s a substantial administrative, I guess, request of government to be able to do this,” Brooks said.

“For a major rule, that means a rule that’s going to have a million-dollar impact on somebody, whether that’s a municipality, a county, individuals or businesses, that is something that needs to be seriously reviewed and it’s something that deserves to have proper review,” Bergstrom said.

Brooks also argued the bill was counterproductive, saying SB 318 was “growing government and creating more regulation.”

“We’re adding additional full-time employees, and we’re creating an additional layer of bureaucracy,” Brooks said.

Bergstrom noted that in other states that have adopted similar laws, there has been a dramatic decline in state government regulations.

SB 318 passed the Senate Administrative Rules Committee on a 7-2 vote that broke along party lines with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed.

A similar measure has also advanced quickly in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

 

House Bill 2728, by state Rep. Gerrid Kendrix, also creates a Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2025.

That measure has already passed out of the House Administrative Rules Committee and the House Appropriations and Budget Committee.

“This is a crucial first step toward increasing transparency and oversight over an unelected bureaucracy that has incredible influence on how laws are implemented,” said Kendrix, R-Altus. “These rules carry the force of law and largely take effect by default, which does not always serve the Oklahoma taxpayers well. This bill will ensure those elected by Oklahomans have greater oversight of the regulations impacting our state.”

“This simplifies the rulemaking process and ensures agency rules are given a third-party thorough review before going into effect,” said House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow.

Members of the Senate Administrative Rules Committee have also advanced other measures designed to pare down Oklahoma’s government bureaucracy.

Senate Bill 896, by Bergstrom, would mandate that all administrative rules at all state government agencies expire over a staggered, five-year period. Rules could be renewed by a vote of the Oklahoma Legislature for subsequent five-year terms.

“While meeting with one agency head recently, I was told that the agency had rules that had not been reviewed since 1987,” Bergstrom said. “I have heard of other rules that have not been reviewed from the ‘70s. This bill guarantees that all rules will be reviewed on a regular basis.”

Brooks objected, saying state agency personnel would be overwhelmed by the enormous review required.

“Each agency may have an administrative rules person, probably who is responsible for working on and promulgating new rules, but probably that would be a drop in the bucket if we’re talking about rules that have been on the books for the last 50 or 75 years that have built over time,” Brooks said.  “And so, are we anticipating that one designated or undesignated administrative rules person for the agencies that you talked about were going to be able to handle that kind of capacity?”

“In reality, they should have been doing this all along,” Bergstrom replied.

SB 896 passed on a 7-2 vote that broke along party lines.

Senate Bill 995, by Bergstrom, would prohibit state agency rules from taking effect without proactive approval by a vote of both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature.

SB 995 passed the Senate Administrative Rules Committee on a 9-0 vote.

Senate Bill 1024, by Bergstrom, would require state agencies to repeal two old regulations for every new regulation proposed. The bill would put into state law a concept adopted through an executive order issued by Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2019.

SB 1024 advanced from committee on a 7-2 vote that broke along party lines.