The "Small Business Regulatory Freedom Act" seeks to amend the South Carolina Code of Laws by creating a Small Business Regulatory Review Committee tasked with evaluating regulations pending reauthorization and aiming to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses by 25%. The bill stipulates that state agencies must have express statutory authority to promulgate regulations and must identify two existing regulations to remove for each new regulation proposed. It also allows individuals affected by a regulation to challenge its validity in court. Additionally, the bill requires assessment reports for proposed regulations, including cost-benefit analyses, and mandates retrospective assessments when regulations are reviewed for renewal, introducing automatic expiration dates for regulations to ensure ongoing scrutiny.

Significant changes to the regulatory approval process are introduced, including tolling the one-hundred-twenty-day period for automatic approval upon the introduction of a disapproval resolution and prohibiting emergency filings if a disapproval resolution is pending. The bill outlines requirements for joint resolutions, including a synopsis of the regulation and a summary of the final assessment report. It specifies that regulations are withdrawn if not effective by the next State Register publication after a two-year session and allows for resubmission without repeating certain requirements if no substantive changes are made. Furthermore, the bill mandates periodic reviews of regulations every five years, establishes automatic expiration for administrative regulations after eight years unless readopted, and clarifies that courts will interpret regulations de novo, rather than deferring to agency interpretations. The act is set to take effect on July 1, 2026.

Statutes affected:
12/05/2024: 1-23-285, 1-23-110, 1-23-115, 1-23-120, 1-23-380
02/26/2025: 1-23-285, 1-23-110, 1-23-115, 1-23-120, 1-23-380
02/27/2025: 1-23-285, 1-23-110, 1-23-115, 1-23-120, 1-23-380
03/05/2025: 1-23-285, 1-23-110, 1-23-115, 1-23-120, 1-23-380
03/06/2025: 1-23-285, 1-23-110, 1-23-115, 1-23-120, 1-23-380
Latest Version: 1-23-285, 1-23-110, 1-23-115, 1-23-120, 1-23-380
12/06/2024: 1-23-285, 1-23-110, 1-23-115, 1-23-120, 1-23-380