Legislative oversight of executive agency rulemaking in Arkansas (2025)
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- See also: 50-State Research: Legislative oversight of executive agency rulemaking, Five pillars of the administrative state: Legislative control
Legislatures oversee executive agency rulemaking through a variety of mechanisms, including reviewing regulations, holding hearings, approving regulations prior to their adoption, or disapproving of or nullifying regulations, among other procedures. State laws and constitutions establish these legislative oversight requirements or authorizations. This page summarizes the legislative oversight of agency rulemaking mechanisms in Arkansas law.
This page contains the following sections:
- Legislative oversight of agency rulemaking in ArkansasThis section details the legislative oversight mechanism in Arkansas.
- How does Arkansas compare to other states?This section compares the legislative oversight policies in Arkansas to those across the 50 states, specifically related to legislative oversight requirements, designated oversight entity, and scope of regulatory oversight.
Legislative oversight of agency rulemaking in Arkansas
See also: Arkansas Constitution and Arkansas Administrative Procedure Act
The Administrative Rules Subcommittee of the Legislative Council must review all proposed rules and may hold public hearings regarding them. Rules take effect upon review, unless members of the subcommittee decide to vote on whether to approve or disapprove of a rule. The subcommittee can also request that the rule be reviewed for approval by the Legislative Council. When regulations and rules pertain to similar topics or are authorized by the same legislation, they can be grouped together for review. The Legislative Council, the Administrative Rules Subcommittee of the Legislative Council, the Joint Budget Committee, or the Administrative Rule Review Subcommittee of the Joint Budget Committee are all authorized to review grouped rules. The Legislative Council, the Administrative Rules Subcommittee of the Legislative Council, or the Joint Budget Committee can request that a rule be reviewed by any committee of the general assembly.
How does Arkansas compare to other states?
Is legislative oversight optional, required, or both?
Because many states have more than one mechanism of legislative oversight of agency regulations, some states have both optional and required legislative oversight mechanisms.
- Thirty-four (34) states require legislative review of all or some agency regulations. Seven states include both optional and required legislative oversight mechanisms, and 27 states only have required legislative oversight mechanisms.
- Ten (10) states authorize, but do not require, legislative oversight of agency regulations.
- The law does not include provisions regarding legislative review of agency actions in six states.
Who reviews the regulations?
Generally, either the full legislature, legislative committees, legislative agencies, divisions, or offices, or any combination of these bodies, is authorized or required to review agency regulations. Thirty-three (33) states authorize or require more than one legislative entity to review agency regulations; therefore, the breakdown below exceeds 50.
- Thirty-one (31) states authorize or require full legislative review of agency regulations.
- Forty-one (41) states authorize or require legislative committees to review agency regulations.
- Thirteen (13) states authorize or require legislative agencies, divisions, or offices to review agency regulations.
What is reviewed?
In states that don't require the legislature to review rules, review is optional, while other states do not have laws relating to legislative oversight of agency rules.
- Thirty-two (32) states require legislative review of all rules. Some states require different levels of review for rules that meet different criteria.
- Six states require legislative review of some rules. Some states require legislatures to review rules that meet certain criteria, which are policies similar to REINS-style state laws. Other states require legislative review of rules that received a public complaint.
- Six states do not require, but explicitly authorize, legislative review of rules.
- Six states do not have laws regarding legislative review of agency rules.
Some states require legislatures to review rules that meet certain criteria, which are policies similar to REINS-style state laws.
See also
- 50-State Research: Fiscal Analysis in Rulemaking
- Five pillars of the administrative state: Legislative control
Footnotes
