Legislation that could dramatically reduce the number of major Oklahoma state regulations in the future has been sent to Gov. Kevin Stitt, passing with broad, bipartisan support in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

House Bill 2728, by state Rep. Gerrid Kendrix and state Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, would create the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2025.

Under the bill, the existing Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) will independently review and assess the economic impact of major rules proposed by state agencies, examining any rule expected to create implementation and compliance costs of more than $1 million over a five-year period.

The Legislature would then have the option to approve or disapprove the proposed agency rules, and major rules generating high compliance costs could not be tied to non-major rules in any joint resolution regarding their approval.

Since a similar law was enacted in Florida in 2010, that state has experienced a 51 percent decrease in the number of rules proposed through the administrative process.

Oklahoma policymakers have focused on regulatory reform this year after a recent report demonstrated that Oklahoma is among the most heavily regulated states in the nation, despite its reputation as a conservative bastion.

The 2024 edition of “Snapshots of State Regulations,” issued by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, showed Oklahoma has 142,313 regulations on the books. That’s nearly double the number of regulations imposed in neighboring Kansas.

Overall, Oklahoma was the 17th-most regulated state in the country, according to the report.

When HB 2728 was debated in the Oklahoma Senate, Bergstrom noted that at least eight major state agency rules in the past year would have likely gone through the new review process had REINS been state law at the time.

Similar legislation has also been filed at the federal level. That bill, cosponsored by U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., would require that federal regulations with an economic impact of $100 million or more be subject to an up-or-down vote in Congress.

“Without the REINS Act, Americans will continue to live under the tyranny of unelected bureaucrats who effectively make laws but never have to stand for election,” said Lee when he announced the bill’s filing. “Congress has an opportunity to restore its constitutional lawmaking role while saving countless American workers, consumers, businesses, and families from the costs imposed by endless federal regulations.”

U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, is among that federal legislation’s other cosponsors.

Members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives easily passed Senate amendments to HB 2728, approving the legislation on a bipartisan 74-12 vote. The bill now proceeds to the governor.