2017 SJR 33: Legislative veto on administrative rules

What SJR 33 Does

Senate Joint Resolution 33 was proposed by Senator Knopp and Representative Nearman.  This resolution proposes to add a new Section 5 to Article III of the Oregon State Constitution to add in that the Legislature can repeal administrative rule or amendment to a rule by passing a resolution by a majority in each house.  See also what I have written on SJR 26 which is in a similar vein.  This bill also includes a preamble which explains that the authors believe that the government, specifically the executive branch, has overreached and through this overreach has strangled small business and also raised the cost of living for Oregonians.  Therefore it is imagined by the authors that if the executive passes some egregious rule that burdens people to have to do something, or prohibit some act, this can now be repealed by the Legislature and thereby the Legislature can swoop in like a knight in shining armor to save small business and ordinary residents from the scaly dragon of the bureaucracy which threatens to breath fire and eat them whole.

My View

If I couched the end of the above in overly dramatic terms, it is because I think that this will not, in practice, aid small business and ordinary residents.  Government works through leverage.  Leverage will be applied by those who have it to where it can be applied.  This bill would create a new leverage point in the Legislature which big business, large unions and other powerful interests can exploit through typical lobbying activities already present.  While the executive branch does have some political appointees as well as a few elected officials, by and large, the larger part of the cogs and gears of the executive branch of the government are not political appointees onto which such lobbying tactics can be applied.
In summary, I do not support this bill.  I think that this creates a temptation of large powerful organizations to influence the legislature.  The separation of powers exists for a reason and this bill would meddle too deeply in that balance.