CRA has fought for good government approaches to analyzing, adopting and implementing statewide regulations that impact the restaurant community.

To that end, the CRA was successful in years past to help get a law approved that requires that all state agencies conduct a robust economic analysis of the impacts of regulations on the regulated entity. This Standardized Regulatory Impact Assessment (SRIA) is required when a proposed regulation is likely to have an economic impact of $50 million or more.

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), better known as Cal/OSHA, is currently working on a set of proposed regulations to implement rules for minimizing heat-related illness among workers in indoor places of employment. The proposed indoor heat-illness regulations are complex and could be costly to implement, which could trigger the major regulation SRIA requirements. If so, the SRIA would need to be conducted during the indoor heat-illness rulemaking process in order to meet the legislative requirement for the regulation to be proposed to the Cal/OSHA Board for review and adoption by January 1, 2019. The CRA has been actively engaged and provided restaurant-specific input in this regulatory process.

A bill (SB 772 Leyva- D) introduced last year and opposed by the CRA would exempt only Cal/OSHA from having to do this Standardized Regulatory Impact Assessment when it implements a regulation that costs $50 million or more annually. This is a legislative attempt to do an end-run around the existing regulatory process taking place for the Indoor Heat Illness Prevention Regulations–something that could very well impact the restaurant community. CRA opposed SB 772 because it eliminates an effective means of providing checks and balances in the regulatory process.

After nearly one year of active lobbying against the bill by the CRA and others, SB 772 was moved off of the Assembly Floor active file due to insufficient votes for passage. While possible, it is unlikely the bill will become active again and garner sufficient votes for passage out of the state Assembly to have its intended impact of selectively removing the SRIA requirement from the Cal/OSHA indoor heat-illness rule-making process. The additional benefit of SB 722 not moving forward at this time is that if it did become law, it would set a dangerous policy precedent of selecting which, if any, future regulations receive thorough economic and policy review in the regulatory environment.