Regulatory Administration and Governance

Sunset is the automatic termination of regulatory boards and agencies unless legislative action is taken to reinstate them. Originally proposed by Colorado in 1976, 36 states adopted sunset legislation. The most common outcomes of sunset reviews were not terminations of agencies and boards as predicted, but administrative and structural changes. By 1990, six states had repealed their sunset laws and another six had suspended the process (Brinegar and Schmitt, The Book of the States 1992–1993). What is more common at this time is the statutory inclusion of sunset provisions in new laws as well as the periodic examination of agencies through performance audits, also known as legislative or evaluation audits. In some states, the process is carried out through the state auditor's office, while in others, a branch of the legislative research agency conducts the reviews.

Sunrise is a process under which an occupation or profession wishing to receive state certification or licensure must propose the components of the legislation, along with cost and benefit estimates of the proposed regulation. The profession must then convince the legislators that consumers will be unduly harmed if the proposed legislation is not adopted. Interestingly, professions rather than consumer groups usually seek regulation, although one rationale for this is that the practitioners understand the harm associated with professional practice better than do consumers. At least 14 states adopted sunrise legislation, although, as with sunset, the activity became more widespread through changes in legislative review processes in many states. A proliferation of voluntarily credentialed groups has reduced the number of requests for licensure placed before legislatures, although the allied health, environmental and financial professions are making progress with uniform licensure.

CLEAR also tracks individual sunrise and sunset reports on its News blog.

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