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Legislation & Regulation

Legislative and Regulatory Update

April 2015 by Scott Harn

• Positive bill passes House

HR 185, the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2015, has passed the House with a vote of 250-175 and is moving on to the Senate.

The bill would:

require agencies to choose the least costly option when considering regulations.
restrict agencies’ use of interim regulations without public comment and provide for a quick judicial review if used.
require hearings to review the accuracy of data for the most costly regulations.

• Anti-mining bill dies in Washington State

As we reported in last month’s column, environmental group “Fish Not Gold” proposed HB 1162, a bill that would have mandated another study on in-stream mining and would have established a moratorium on suction gold dredging in Washington State.

We also sent an email out to those subscribers with email addresses who live in Washington State. It was a brief message to alert miners of a hearing on HB 1162 in front of the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee in Olympia on February 12, and we urged readers to send in comments to their legislators.

We are happy to report that HB 1162 did not make it out of the House prior to the expiration date and the bill is dead for this session. It’s always possible it could be reintroduced next year, so keep on the lookout for another attempt to shut down small-scale mining by environmental extremists in Washington State.

Keep up the good work!

by Scott Harn

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