THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995               TAG: 9503160371
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 
DATELINE: RALEIGH                            LENGTH: Short :   40 lines

PANEL LIKELY TO REVISIT ISSUE OF RULES OVERSIGHT NEXT WEEK

A bill requiring General Assembly review of new administrative rules should be ready for further debate by a House judiciary committee next week, the committee chairman, N. Leo Daughtry, said Wednesday.

The bill is part of a package of regulatory reform measures moving through the General Assembly.

The package would have sweeping effects on the way that rules governing a wide range of activities - coastal fishing practices, drinking water protection, sewage disposal, coastal development and the like - are promulgated.

Committee members generally agree that rules adopted by state boards and commissions should be reviewed before they can take effect.

But members are divided over who should provide that additional layer of review.

The bill originally required approval by the General Assembly of all rules before they could take effect. That bill is sponsored by E. David Redwine, a Brunswick County Democrat.

But in the face of opposition - from state environmental regulators and the chairman of the Marine Fisheries Commission, who said the proposal would have a devastating effect on the state's environment and coastal fish populations - Redwine developed an alternative. It increases the authority of the existing Rules Review Commission and omits the requirement that the legislature approve any new rules before they can be implemented.

But that alternative, too, met opposition, from committee members who favored giving the legislature more scrutiny over new rules.

Daughtry, a Johnston County Republican, appointed the subcommittee to try to write a bill that most committee members could support. by CNB