SB 885 (Restoring Accountability Act) prevents a state agency from taking final action to adopt a "major regulation" unless the agency first prepares the required standardized regulatory impact analysis (SRIA), submits it to the Department of Finance (DOF) for comment, proposes legislation to the Legislature to authorize the regulation, and the Legislature enacts a law expressly authorizing the agency to adopt it. The prohibition takes effect January 1, 2027.
The bill preserves an emergency pathway but limits it: an agency may adopt an emergency major regulation only under the APA's emergency rules procedures, the regulation may run for no more than 180 days, and the agency may readopt the same or substantially equivalent emergency regulation up to two additional times for 90 days each only if it prepares an SRIA and submits a legislative authorization proposal. Agencies must submit those proposals in compliance with Government Code Section 9795.
The net effect is a procedural gatekeeping role for the Legislature over any long-term, high‑cost statewide rules.
At a Glance
What It Does
SB 885 adds Government Code Section 11355. It requires agencies to complete the SRIA and DOF review, then submit a proposed bill to the Legislature recommending authorization for any major regulation, and bars final agency adoption until the Legislature enacts an express authorization statute. Emergency adoption is preserved but time‑limited and subject to SRIA/readoption constraints.
Who It Affects
State agencies that propose "major regulations" (those with economic impacts exceeding the existing $50 million threshold), the Department of Finance, legislative committees and staff who will receive agency bill proposals, and businesses, local governments, and other regulated parties facing high‑impact rules.
Why It Matters
The bill moves final approval of costly, statewide regulatory decisions from administrative rulemaking into the legislative process, changing timelines, political accountability, and how agencies plan rulemaking projects. It both increases legislative oversight and raises practical and legal questions about delegation, emergency use, and regulatory continuity.
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What This Bill Actually Does
SB 885 changes who gets the final say over California rules that meet the existing definition of a "major regulation" (the Administrative Procedure Act ties that term to rules with statewide economic impacts above the established threshold). Under the bill, an agency cannot complete its rulemaking and file a final regulation with the Office of Administrative Law unless it first finishes the SRIA required by the APA, gets DOF comment on that analysis, and then formally submits a proposed bill to the Legislature recommending that the Legislature authorize the rule.
Only after the Legislature enacts a statute that expressly authorizes the agency to adopt that particular major regulation may the agency take final regulatory action.
Because translating a regulatory proposal into statutory text requires drafting, negotiating with legislative offices, and surviving the legislative calendar, the bill transforms many agency rulemakings into matters requiring legislative sponsorship and political agreement. Agencies will need to build parallel tracks: the technical administrative record and the separate legislative proposal; they will also have to coordinate closely with sponsors, committee staff, and DOF to move authorization bills through the Legislature before the rule can be finalized.SB 885 preserves the APA's emergency rule authority but narrows its use for major regulations.
An agency may adopt an emergency major regulation if it finds an emergency and follows the emergency rule procedures; that emergency regulation may last no more than 180 days. If the agency needs more time, it may readopt the same or substantially equivalent emergency regulation up to two additional times for up to 90 days each, but only after preparing the SRIA, submitting it to DOF for comment, and filing the legislative authorization proposal.
Finally, the bill requires that the agency submit its legislative proposal in compliance with Government Code Section 9795, a procedural rule for how agencies transmit requests for legislation to the Legislature. Practically, the bill creates a new legislative gatekeeping step and a set of timing, drafting, and political obligations that agencies must factor into any major-rule project.
The Five Things You Need to Know
SB 885 takes effect January 1, 2027; on or after that date agencies cannot take final action on a major regulation without legislative authorization.
The bill requires agencies to prepare a standardized regulatory impact analysis (SRIA) and submit it to the Department of Finance for comment before sending a recommended-authorizing bill to the Legislature (see existing APA Section 11346.3).
An agency may not take final action to adopt a major regulation unless the Legislature has enacted a law that expressly authorizes that agency to adopt that specific major regulation.
Emergency adoption remains possible, but an emergency major regulation may run no more than 180 days, and an agency may readopt the same or substantially equivalent emergency regulation only twice for up to 90 days each if it has prepared an SRIA and sent a legislative authorization proposal.
All agency proposals to the Legislature under this section must be submitted in compliance with Government Code Section 9795, the statutory process for transmitting agency requests for legislation.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Findings and legislative intent
This opening section states the Legislature's purpose: that high‑impact statewide regulations merit direct legislative oversight. It frames major regulations as policy choices that the Legislature believes should not be resolved solely within the executive branch and underscores that emergencies should remain actionable but time‑limited. For practitioners, the findings signal the bill's intent to shift normative control over large economic or social policy effects to the legislative arena, which informs interpretation of any ambiguous provisions.
Applicability and APA Article 5 compliance
Subdivisions (a) and (b)(1) place SB 885 inside the existing APA framework: agencies must continue to follow Article 5 rulemaking procedures (beginning at Section 11346), including notice, public comment, and SRIA preparation per Section 11346.3. The bill therefore supplements, rather than replaces, the standard administrative record and impact‑analysis steps; agencies cannot short‑circuit SRIA work to avoid the new legislative step.
Mandatory submission of a legislative authorization proposal; enactment required
After completing the SRIA and getting DOF comment, the agency must submit a proposal to the Legislature recommending legislation to authorize the major regulation. Crucially, the agency is barred from taking final regulatory action unless the Legislature enacts a law expressly authorizing that adoption. That creates a binary trigger: without an express statutory authorization, the agency's regulatory project cannot be finalized, effectively requiring either sponsorship by a legislator and passage of a bill or abandonment/revision of the rule.
Emergency regulations: conditions and readoption limits
Subdivision (c) preserves the APA's emergency regulation authority (Section 11346.1) for major regulations but caps ordinary effect at 180 days. If an agency needs extensions, it may readopt a substantially equivalent emergency regulation up to two times for 90 days each, but only after completing the SRIA and submitting the legislative authorization proposal. Practically, this allows temporary continuity of an emergency rule while the agency seeks legislative authorization, but it limits indefinite reliance on emergency adoption as a means to evade the authorization requirement.
Procedure for submitting legislative proposals
Subdivision (d) requires that any proposal sent to the Legislature follow Government Code Section 9795. That section governs how agencies transmit requests for legislation (format, routing, and required supporting materials). This means an agency cannot simply send informal letters; it must comply with formal submission protocols, which typically involve coordination with DOF and the Legislature's bill introduction processes.
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Explore Government in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- California Legislature and legislative staff — the bill gives lawmakers formal veto/gatekeeping power over major regulations and places these policy choices squarely within the legislative process.
- Regulated businesses and trade groups facing major rules — they gain an additional political venue (the Legislature) to influence, block, or amend costly regulations before final adoption.
- Local governments and taxing authorities — increased transparency and a required legislative review may surface statewide fiscal or local cost impacts that could otherwise be embedded in administrative rules.
Who Bears the Cost
- State agencies that issue high‑impact rules (for example, boards and departments that frequently undertake economically significant regulations) — they must allocate staff to draft sponsoring legislation, coordinate with legislative offices, and extend project timelines, increasing workload and legal/legislative costs.
- Legislative committees and staff — they absorb new workload to process agency‑initiated authorization bills, evaluate SRIAs, and reconcile technical rule details with statute language.
- Regulated parties and the public facing regulatory uncertainty — while legislative review can check overreach, it also lengthens timelines and can create periods of uncertainty where proposed regulatory requirements are neither finalized nor fully enforceable for extended stretches.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between democratic accountability and technical, timely administration: SB 885 advances legislative control over high‑impact policy choices, enhancing political accountability, but it risks politicizing technical rulemaking and slowing responses to urgent problems—especially where technical expertise or rapid action is required.
The bill raises a number of implementation ambiguities and tradeoffs. First, it does not define how specific an "expressly authorizing" statute must be: must the authorization identify regulatory text verbatim, set precise substantive standards, or may the Legislature pass a statute that delegates broad authority back to the agency?
That ambiguity matters because the constitutional and statutory doctrine around delegation and nondelegation could affect whether an agency may later implement delegated language without further action. Second, the emergency readoption path—initial 180 days plus up to two 90‑day readoptions—permits agencies to keep major rules in effect for a substantial period (potentially up to about a year) while pursuing legislative authorization.
That window could be used legitimately during prolonged crises, but it also creates a practical path to extend rules without congressional‑style debate and increases the incentive to rely on emergency findings pragmatically rather than narrowly.
Operationally, agencies will need to coordinate SRIA timing, DOF comment cycles, and legislative drafting calendars. Section 9795 compliance adds a procedural layer that may force agencies to package additional documentation; the bill does not fund or staff these new tasks, so agencies will bear the administrative burden.
Finally, the bill may create friction with federal obligations and statutory deadlines where state agencies must issue rules to comply with federal programs, leaving unanswered how agencies should reconcile conflicts between meeting federal timelines and seeking state legislative authorization.
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