Chapter 30A of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 5 the following section:-

Section 5A.  (a) The joint committee on state administration and regulatory oversight of the general court, in this section called the committee, shall have authority, as provided in this section, to review proposed and emergency regulations, as well as existing regulations which, for the purposes of this section, shall include administrative policies and decisions, to offer the committee’s comments concerning the merit and appropriateness of the regulations and the committee’s opinion whether the regulations are authorized by and consistent with law.  

(b) Before adopting a regulation, an agency shall file the proposed regulation with the committee no later than the time required for notices under sections 2 and 3, but the agency shall file an emergency regulation with the committee on the same day as it is filed with the state secretary.  Otherwise, an emergency regulation shall be treated as a proposed regulation under this subsection, but the committee may also evaluate its implementation.   The committee may hold public hearings concerning a proposed regulation and may invite representatives of the agency to testify at such hearings. 

(c) The committee may initiate review under this section of an existing regulation on the committee’s own initiative or at the request of any person.  Committee review of an existing regulation may include an evaluation of the implementation of the regulation.  The committee may hold public hearings concerning the existing regulation and may invite representatives of the agency to testify at such hearings.

(d) An agency shall respond in writing within 10 days to the committee’s written questions relevant to the committee’s review of a proposed or existing regulation.  The agency shall also provide to the committee without charge copies of public records in the agency’s custody within 10 days after the committee’s written request

(e) The committee may issue a report with proposed changes to a proposed or existing regulation, and shall transmit this report to the agency.  If the agency does not adopt the proposed changes contained in the committee’s report, the agency shall notify the committee in writing of the reasons why it did not adopt the proposed changes, at the time it adopts a proposed regulation or within 21 days after receiving the committee’s report on an existing regulation.  If the agency adopts a proposed regulation without complying with this section, the committee may further review the adopted regulation.

(f) The committee or an agency may make a filing, notice or other communication under this section by electronic mail or other electronic means.