Mike Brashinsky, director of the Office of Administrative Rules, gave the committee an overview of the office’s role, staffing and work products and emphasized that administrative rulemaking operates under grants of authority from the Legislature.

“Rulemaking is a delegated legislative power from the legislature,” Brashinsky said. He told the committee that every agency that issues rules does so under statutory authority and that the Office of Administrative Rules reviews about 1,000 rulemaking actions per year to ensure agencies have answered required questions under the rulemaking act.

Brashinsky outlined the office’s staffing and publications: six staff members (one director, a senior business analyst who liaises with the vendor for the e-rules filing system, two editors who prepare the Utah State Bulletin and compile the Utah Administrative Code, a senior research consultant and an outreach coordinator). The office publishes the Utah State Bulletin and a monthly Utah State Digest and maintains the compilation of effective administrative rules in the Utah Administrative Code.

He said the administrative code’s printed equivalent has grown from about 4,000 pages in 1987 to roughly 7,100 pages today, noting the modern count includes publisher annotations and case law excerpts. Brashinsky told the committee that the office’s review is limited in scope: it ensures required rulemaking materials are supplied and understandable, but the office does not conduct comprehensive cost analyses of proposed rules and does not have staff capacity to do so.

A committee member asked whether the state might undertake a long-term focused review of rules to ensure they remain within statutory authority. Brashinsky summarized that such a review would be a combined legislative and executive effort to look at statutes and rules over time.

Brashinsky closed by describing ongoing staff projects, including reworking the rule-writing manual used to guide agencies on drafting rules and process requirements.