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Agency dynamics: States with sunset provisions for administrative rules (2020)

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This page contains information from a Ballotpedia survey about administrative agency dynamics, one of the five pillars key to understanding the main areas of debate about the nature and scope of the administrative state. Ballotpedia reviewed all 50 state constitutions and administrative procedures acts (APAs) to determine which states had sunset provisions for administrative rules as of 2020.

Sunset provisions cause rules made by state administrative agencies to expire after a specified amount of time. Many states with sunset provisions require agencies to reaffirm rules if they want them to remain in effect beyond the specified time limit. Rules that agencies do not reaffirm expire once they reach the statutory time limit.

According to the Ballotpedia survey, 11 state APAs included sunset provisions for most administrative rules and another 2 have sunset provisions that kick in under certain circumstances as of September 2020. The other 37 states did not have such sunset provisions in their APAs or constitutions. Thus, some states set time limits for administrative rules that required new agency action if an agency wanted a rule to remain in effect.

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In 2025, Ballotpedia updated the pillar system used to understand the main areas of debate about the nature and scope of the administrative state. Click here to learn more about this updated structure and to see Ballotpedia's current content related to the administrative state.



Background and methodology

Background

For this survey, Ballotpedia examined whether states had sunset provisions for administrative rules. States with such provisions in their Administrative Procedure Acts (APAs) do not allow administrative agencies to create rules that last forever without additional action from the agencies to keep the rules in force.

Some scholars are generally supportive of sunset provisions for regulations. The Mercatus Center, a free-market think tank at George Mason University, published a 2015 report about state sunset laws allowing for periodic legislative review of existing regulations. The report argued that some of those provisions may be "an effective bargaining tool for the legislature to minimize the executive branch’s influence on a wide variety of state boards and agencies" by giving the legislature a way "to have influence over an agency’s agenda."[1]

Writing about sunset provisions at the federal level, law professors Jonathan Adler and Christopher J. Walker argued in a law review article that such time limits on rules "mitigate the democratic deficits that accompany broad delegations of lawmaking authority to federal agencies and spur more regular legislative engagement with federal regulatory policy."[2]

Some scholars find problems with sunset provisions. Law professor Emily Berman wrote in a 2013 law review article that sunset provisions were an ineffective means of restraining federal counterterrorism laws. She argued that "rather than guarding against the longterm entrenchment of overly robust security measures, sunsets have the opposite effect."[3]

Methodology

Ballotpedia examined all 50 state constitutions and Administrative Procedure Acts (APAs) to see whether states had sunset provisions for administrative rules. Ballotpedia reviewed each provision involving agency rulemaking to see if states put a time limit on how long rules remain effective without further action from state agencies.

Administrative Procedure Acts (APAs), which govern the procedures state administrative agencies must follow to issue regulations and adjudicate disputes, vary among the 50 states, but many offer fewer procedural protections for those accused of wrongdoing than a defendant would have in a courtroom.

Other state laws might have imposed sunset provisions for administrative rules, but those are beyond the scope of this survey.

To see the specific legal provisions Ballotpedia used to categorize each state, click here.

Summary of findings

Ballotpedia's survey of state constitutions and APAs produced the following key takeaways (as of September 2020):

  • 11 states had APAs with sunset provisions for administrative rules.
  • 2 states had APAs with conditional sunset provisions for administrative rules that only kick in in certain circumstances.
  • In Arizona, the Governor's Regulatory Review Council may choose to impose sunsets on rules during regular review periods.[4]
  • In Vermont, the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules may impose sunsets for rules that have not been readopted or amended in the preceding six years.[5]
  • 37 states did not have APAs or constitutions with sunset provisions for administrative rules.

Results: States with sunset provisions for administrative rules

The table below includes each state in alphabetical order and indicates those with specific provisions in their constitutions or APAs that set time limits for administrative rules.

  • Done means that the state APA or constitution had sunset provisions for administrative rules
  • DefeatedA means that the state APA or constitution did not have sunset provisions for administrative rules
  • —— means that the state APA or constitution had conditional sunset provisions for administrative rules

Other state laws that might have imposed sunset provisions for administrative rules are beyond the scope of this survey.

State Constitution or APA provisions that include sunset provisions for administrative rules
Alabama DefeatedA
Alaska DefeatedA
Arizona ——
Arkansas DefeatedA
California DefeatedA
Colorado Done
Connecticut DefeatedA
Delaware DefeatedA
Florida DefeatedA
Georgia DefeatedA
Hawaii DefeatedA
Idaho Done
Illinois DefeatedA
Indiana Done
Iowa DefeatedA
Kansas DefeatedA
Kentucky Done
Louisiana DefeatedA
Maine DefeatedA
Maryland DefeatedA
Massachusetts DefeatedA
Michigan DefeatedA
Minnesota DefeatedA
Mississippi DefeatedA
Missouri DefeatedA
Montana DefeatedA
Nebraska DefeatedA
Nevada DefeatedA
New Hampshire Done
New Jersey Done
New Mexico DefeatedA
New York DefeatedA
North Carolina Done
North Dakota DefeatedA
Ohio DefeatedA
Oklahoma DefeatedA
Oregon DefeatedA
Pennsylvania DefeatedA
Rhode Island Done
South Carolina DefeatedA
South Dakota DefeatedA
Tennessee Done
Texas Done
Utah DefeatedA
Vermont ——
Virginia DefeatedA
Washington DefeatedA
West Virginia Done
Wisconsin DefeatedA
Wyoming DefeatedA

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Mercatus Center, "Sunset Legislation in the States: Balancing the Legislature and the Executive," August 27, 2015
  2. ↑ C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, "Delegation and Time," Jonathan H. Adler and Christopher J. Walker, CSAS Working Paper 19-14, May 2, 2019
  3. ↑ Fordham Law Review, "The Paradox of Counterterrorism Sunset Provisions," 2013
  4. ↑ JUSTIA, "2019 Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 41 - State Government § 41-1056 Review by agency," accessed September 15, 2020
  5. ↑ JUSTIA, "2019 Vermont Statutes, Title 3 - Executive, Chapter 25 - Administrative Procedure § 834 Periodic review of rules and forms," accessed September 15, 2020
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