Summary of Sunset Legislation

Jt. Legis. Sunset Review Cmte. – Review by the Jt. Legislative Sunset Review Cmte. of professional and vocational licensing boards, pursuant to Government Code 9147.7. Sunset clauses are included in other selected programs and legislation.

No longer comprehensive – in 2016, funding for Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee and staff eliminated; in 2017, provisions of law requiring decennial review of certain programs/entities repealed.

The 2011 Nevada Legislature created the Sunset Subcommittee of the Legislative Commission with the enactment of Senate Bill 251 (Chapter 480, Statutes of Nevada) . The Subcommittee is to conduct reviews of all boards and commissions not provided for in the Nevada Constitution or created by Executive Order of the Governor, and is charged with determining whether those entities should be terminated, modified, consolidated, or continued. The Subcommittee must review each entity no less often than once every ten years. After making it’s initial recommendations no later than June 30, 2012, the Subcommittee must submit all subsequent recommendations to the Legislative Commission on or before June 30 of each even numbered year. The Legislative Commission may accept or reject the recommendations in whole or part. and may then request that legislation be drafted for consideration by the full Legislature.

The automatic sunsetting of an agency every six years was eliminated in 1992. The legislature must pass a bill in order to sunset a specific agency.

While they have not enacted sunset legislation in the same sense as the other states with detailed information in this table, the legislatures in  Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Wisconsin have included sunset clauses in selected programs or legislation.

Comprehensive agency sunset review and repeal was repealed in 2011. Florida does have Open Government Sunset Review of public records and meetings exemptions with a 5-year review period.

Governor is to read GOMB report and make recommendations to the General Assembly every even-numbered year.

Sunset legislation terminated July 1992. Legislative oversight of designated state agencies, consisting of audit, review and evaluation, continues.

Sunset Act terminated December 31, 1984. House and Senate Rules are available at billstatus.ls.state.ms.us. New Rules were adopted in January 2012.

Sunset legislation is discretionary, meaning that senators are free to offer sunset legislation or attach termination dates to legislative proposals. There is no formal sunset commission. Nebraska. Revised Statutes section 50-1303 directs the Legislature’s Government, Military and Veteran’s Committee to conduct an evaluation of any board, commission, or similar state entity. The review must include, among other things, a recommendation as to whether the board, commission, or entity should be terminated, continued or modified.

New Hampshire’s Sunset Committee was repealed July 1, 1986.

North Carolina’s sunset law terminated on July 30, 1981. Successor vehicle, the Legislative Committee on Agency Review, operated until June 30, 1983.

There are statutory exceptions.

HB 471 of the 131st General Assembly
revised and renewed the Sunset Review Committee to be convened each odd-numbered general
assembly. Therefore, Sunset Review will operate on a recurring four-year cycle.

Sunset legislation was repealed in 1993.No general law sunsetting rules or agencies. Oversight mechanisms, including auditing, reporting or performance measures, are discretionary but may be included in specific bills as determined by legislature.

No standing sunset statutes or procedures at this time.

Law repealed by 1998 Act 419, Part II, Sect. 35E.

South Dakota suspended sunset legislation in 1979. A later law directing the Executive Board of the Legislative Research Council to establish one or more interim committees each year to review state agencies was repealed in 2012.

Sunsets are at the legislature’s discretion. Their structure will vary on an individual basis.

Wyoming repealed sunset legislation in 1988.

The program evaluation process evolved out of the sunset process, but Wyoming currently does not have a scheduled sunset of programs.

Default is ten years, although years may be decreased by legislative decisions.

Sometimes programs or agencies are subject to sunset provisions; this is entirely ad hoc as the Legislature determines appropriate. There is a general law, however, called State Government Evaluation Law that provides for regular reviews of agencies and boards by committee of jurisdiction; the committees can recommend termination (sunset) but, again, this is ad hoc.

A regulation expires seven years after its last substantive review unless appropriate action is taken by agency.

The certification process does not involve a specific review unless requested by a committee member.

The agency is required to review its regulations for compliance with current law at least once every 7 years and file a certification letter stating whether the regulation will be amended or remain in effect without amendment. If the certification letter is not filed or the regulation is not repromulgated, the regulation will expire 7 years after the last substantive committee review.

Agency expiration schedule under the act: agencies will expire, unless renewed, according to the following schedule: (1)An agency in existence on January 1 in the year of the first regular session of an oddnumbered general assembly expires at the end of December 31 in the year of the second regular session of that general assembly; (2) An agency created during an even-numbered general assembly expires at the end of December 31 in the year of the second regular session of the next odd-numbered general assembly; and (3) An agency created during an odd-numbered general.
assembly expires at the end of December 31 in the year of the second regular session of the next odd-numbered general assembly.

Sunsets are at Leg. discretion. Their structure will vary on an individual basis.

The Leg. will sometimes build a sunset into law, and then may revisit the sunset before it takes effect. 2 V.S.A. 20(d) provides specific Leg. intent to sunset reports after five years, but a report only sunsets if the Leg. enacts law to do so. 3 V.S.A. 268 established a time-limited Sunset Advisory Commission to recommend whether State boards and commissions should sunset.