South Carolina S 445: Regulations

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 445 Text of Previous Version (Mar. 12, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 445

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING 
SECTION 1-23-110, RELATING TO PROCEDURES FOR THE PUBLICATION OF NOTICE OF A 
PROPOSED PROMULGATION OF REGULATIONS, PUBLIC PARTICIPATION, AND A CONTEST OF REGULATION 
FOR PROCEDURAL DEFECTS, SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR NOTICE AND TO PROVIDE THAT ALL 
WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS, TRANSCRIPTS, OR RECORDINGS OF ORAL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE 
PROVIDED TO THE SMALL BUSINESS REGULATORY REVIEW COMMITTEE; BY AMENDING SECTION 
1-23-120, RELATING TO APPROVAL OF REGULATIONS, SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR METHODS OF 
REPEAL OR AUTOMATIC APPROVAL OF REGULATIONS; BY ADDING SECTION 1-23-121 SO AS 
TO PROVIDE THAT REGULATIONS MAY NOT CONTAIN VERBATIM STATUTORY TEXT; AND BY 
AMENDING SECTION 1-23-280, RELATING TO THE SMALL BUSINESS REGULATORY REVIEW 
COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP, SO AS TO ADD AGRIBUSINESS REPRESENTATION.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 1-23-110(A)(3) of the S.C. Code is amended to 
read:

 (3) give notice of 
 hold a public hearing at which the agency 
will receive data, views, or arguments, orally and in writing, from interested 
persons on proposed regulations. Notice of the public 
hearing must be provided in the same manner required by subsection (B) and 
by publication of a notice in the State Register if requested by twenty-five 
persons, by a governmental subdivision or agency, or by an association having 
not less than twenty-five members. The notice must include:

 (a) 
the address to which written comments must be sent and the time period of not 
less than thirty days for submitting these comments;

 (b) 
the date, time, and place of the public hearing which must not be held sooner 
than thirty days from the date the notice is published in the State Register;

 (c) 
a narrative preamble and the text of the proposed regulation. The preamble 
shall include a section-by-section discussion of the proposed regulation and a 
justification for any provision not required to maintain compliance with 
federal law including, but not limited to, grant programs;

 (d) 
the statutory authority for its promulgation;

 (e) 
a preliminary fiscal impact statement prepared by the agency reflecting 
estimates of costs to be incurred by the State and its political subdivisions 
in complying with the proposed regulation. A preliminary fiscal impact 
statement is not required for those regulations which are not subject to 
General Assembly review under Section 1-23-120;

 (f) 
a summary of the preliminary assessment report submitted by the agency to the 
office and notice that copies of the preliminary report are available from the 
agency. The agency may charge a reasonable fee to cover the costs associated 
with this distribution requirement. A regulation that does not require an 
assessment report because it does not have a substantial economic impact, must 
include a statement to that effect. A regulation exempt from filing an 
assessment report pursuant to Section 1-23-115(E) must include an explanation 
of the exemption;

 (g) 
statement of the need and reasonableness of the regulation as determined by the 
agency based on an analysis of the factors listed in Section 1-23-115(C)(1) 
through (11). At no time is an agency required to include items (4) through 
(8) in the reasonableness and need determination. However, comments related to 
items (4) through (8) received by the agency during the public comment periods 
must be made part of the official record of the proposed regulations.

 (h) 
the location where a person may obtain from the agency a copy of the detailed 
statement of rationale as required by this item. For new regulations and 
significant amendments to existing regulations, an agency shall prepare and 
make available to the public upon request a detailed statement of rationale 
which shall state the basis for the regulation, including the scientific or 
technical basis, if any, and shall identify any studies, reports, policies, or 
statements of professional judgment or administrative need relied upon in 
developing the regulation. This subitem does not apply to regulations which are 
not subject to General Assembly review under Section 1-23-120.

SECTION 2. Section 1-23-110(C)(1) of the S.C. Code is amended to 
read:

 (C)(1) The agency shall consider fully all 
written and oral submissions respecting the proposed regulation. All written submissions, transcripts, or recordings of oral 
submissions must be provided to the Small Business Regulatory Review Committee.

SECTION 3. Section 1-23-120(I) of the S.C. Code is amended to 
read:

 (I) For purposes of this section, only 
those calendar days occurring durin