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 and reducing the regulatory burden on businesses by 25%. The bill mandates that state agencies cannot create new regulations without explicit statutory authority and requires them to eliminate two existing regulations for each new one proposed. It also allows individuals affected by regulations to challenge their validity in court. Additionally, the bill introduces requirements for assessment reports on proposed regulations, including cost-benefit analyses, and mandates retrospective assessments for regulations up for renewal, along with automatic expiration dates for regulations unless readopted.

Significant changes to the legislative review process are also included, such as tolling the one-hundred-twenty-day automatic approval period upon the introduction of a joint resolution disapproving a regulation. The bill allows any General Assembly member to introduce a joint resolution regarding a regulation thirty days after it has been referred to a standing committee, provided no other resolutions have been introduced. Furthermore, it establishes that all administrative regulations will expire eight years after their effective date unless readopted, with certain exemptions for federal compliance regulations. The bill clarifies that courts will independently interpret regulations without deferring to agency interpretations. The act is set to take effect on July 1, 2026.

Statutes affected:
01/21/2025: 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