Now that spring is almost over, a lot of us are turning to some long-overdue “spring cleaning.” Virginia agencies are doing the same with their regulations and guidance documents, taking a careful look at what’s built up over the years and determining if it’s really needed.

These regulatory streamlining efforts have been a huge win for Virginia citizens. ORM estimates that recent regulatory changes will save Virginia citizens over $370 million! And they’ve also been a big win for Virginia agencies. By getting rid of thousands of pages of outdated or unnecessary regulations and guidance documents, agencies have saved themselves countless hours of paperwork. Here are a few examples.

 

Virginia Tech Eliminates Its Parking Regulations.

Finding a parking space can often be a chore, and parking rules can help make the process easier. For this reason, the General Assembly has authorized state agencies and universities to set parking rules.

While reviewing its regulations, Virginia Tech recently determined that it had an extensive body of parking regulations that were out-of-date. It determined that, like most other universities and state agencies, it could simply enforce parking restrictions directly without maintaining a formal set of regulations. By so doing, it was able to achieve a 97% reduction in regulatory requirements!

Other universities and agencies with parking regulations should give them a careful look and decide if they can do the same.

 

Multiple Agencies Eliminate 100% of Documents on Town Hall.

Virginia law requires that agencies post their guidance documents on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall.

But Town Hall currently includes numerous documents that don’t meet the statutory definition of “guidance.” This is confusing for the public, and maintaining these documents wastes agencies’ time.

To address this problem, Virginia agencies are taking a careful look at all their documents on Town Hall and determining which ones should actually be there. As part of that process, several agencies have determined that none of the documents they have posted qualify. Recently the Virginia Racing Commission, James Madison University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Military Institute, and the Virginia Employment Commission have eliminated 100% of their documents on the Town Hall Guidance page. In every case, these agencies have kept any useful resources on their website while getting away from calling anything “guidance” that doesn’t qualify.

Congratulations to these agencies and universities for far exceeding the 25% guidance document length reduction goal and saving themselves and the public a lot of time and confusion!

Download ORM Highlights: June 2024.