Georgia’s Red Tape Rollback Act: Regulators Must Now Show Their Economic Work

By Stephen Youngblood   ·   Published October 14, 2026

Stephen Youngblood is an Associate at Bloom Parham, LLP and the Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia’s Administrative Law Section.

On May 12, 2026, Governor Kemp signed into law the Red Tape Rollback Act of 2026. Under the Red Tape Rollback Act, every Georgia agency proposing a regulation must consider the regulation’s economic impact and publish a statement of that impact. This change came in House Bill 1247. The bill also enacted the Georgia Bureaucratic Deference Elimination Act, which ends judicial deference to agency interpretations at the state level. In addition, the bill makes it easier for the General Assembly to block rules.

For regulated businesses, the result is a better opportunity to shape or challenge new or modified regulations.

What do the Red Tape Rollback Act and HB 1247 require?

• An economic-impact statement. Before adopting, amending, or repealing a substantive regulation, an agency must consider the regulation’s economic impact. The agency must also include that statement in a public notice. An agency that attaches a written economic analysis is presumed to have considered the impact.
• The least-cost alternative. Georgia law already directs agencies to avoid excessive regulatory costs when a less expensive alternative fully accomplishes the statute’s objectives. O.C.G.A. § 50-13-4(a)(5). When businesses participate in the rulemaking process by submitting compliance-cost data, the agency’s final decision must account for that data.
• Relief for small businesses. Agencies must also minimize a rule’s impact on independent businesses with 100 or fewer employees where legal and feasible, through lighter requirements, simpler compliance, performance standards, or exemptions. O.C.G.A. § 50-13-4(a)(3).
• No deference. Courts and hearing officers may no longer defer to an agency’s reading of the Constitution, a statute, or a published rule. C.G.A. § 15-1-24.
• Easier legislative override. A legislative override of an objected-to rule now takes a majority vote in each house rather than two-thirds. O.C.G.A. § 50-13-4(f).
• Retrospective review. Beginning July 1, 2028, and every five years after, most agencies must produce an analysis of each of their rules for the Office of Planning and Budget. That office will publish the reports. Rules of the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Natural Resources, the Environmental Protection Division, and the Public Service Commission are exempt from this review, but not from the economic-impact statement. C.G.A. § 50-13-24.

How are these requirements enforced?

These requirements are part of Georgia’s Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Under the APA, a rule is invalid unless the agency adopted it in exact compliance with the economic-impact and least-cost requirements. O.C.G.A. § 50-13-4(d). Affected parties have the right to ask a superior court to declare a rule invalid if the agency does not comply. There is no requirement to ask the agency to reconsider before filing suit. O.C.G.A. § 50-13-10. A corporation may sue in Fulton County or in the county where it maintains its principal place of business in Georgia. A challenge based on procedural defects must be filed within two years of the rule’s effective date. O.C.G.A. § 50-13-4(d).

The court will also ask whether the rule falls within the agency’s statutory authority. Under HB 1247, the court now answers that question without deference to the agency’s reading of the statute.

Federal precedent will fill the gaps. Georgia courts have rarely construed the APA’s rulemaking provisions, and none has yet interpreted the new economic-impact requirement. Federal courts, by contrast, have spent decades reviewing how agencies account for cost. Federal courts have vacated rules resting on deficient economic analysis. Business Roundtable v. SEC, 647 F.3d 1144 (D.C. Cir. 2011). That federal case law offers a ready guide to what the Red Tape Rollback Act demands.

Make your case before a Georgia agency adopts the rule

Before a Georgia agency adopts a rule, it must publish the proposed text and give the public at least 30 days to submit “comments.” Anyone may submit comments. A comment can range from a short letter explaining how the rule would affect your business to a detailed cost study. In some cases, the agency must also hold a hearing on request. The agency must “consider fully” every written and oral submission before it adopts a regulation. O.C.G.A. § 50-13-4(a)(2). Once a regulation becomes final, submitted comments become the foundation of any court challenge, because what you submit defines what the agency must answer. If a proposed rule affects your business, contact Bloom Parham before the comment period closes.

Six steps to maximize the effectiveness of a public comment:

1. Get on the mailing list. Each agency must send notice of proposed rules to anyone who asks in writing. Make that request to every agency that touches your business.
2. Test the agency’s numbers. Compare the agency’s economic-impact statement, now required by the Red Tape Rollback Act, with your actual compliance costs. In a comment, submit your own figures and a short explanation of how you calculated them.
3. Put a cheaper alternative on the record. Describe a less expensive approach that fully meets the statute’s objectives. This step frames the least-cost requirement.
4. Request a hearing when the stakes justify it. The agency must hold an oral hearing on a substantive rule if 25 directly affected persons, a local government, or an association with at least 25 members asks. A trade association can make that request.
5. Demand a statement of reasons. Before adoption, or within 30 days after, any interested person can require the agency to explain the principal reasons for and against the rule, including why it rejected objections. That statement fixes the agency’s reasoning for any later review.
6. Engage the legislature. Every notice goes to the relevant committees of each house. A committee objection, followed by majority votes in both houses, can override the rule.

How can Bloom Parham help with the Red Tape Rollback Act?

Call Bloom Parham as soon as a proposed rule would change how you operate, what you spend on compliance, or how you do business. It is critical to submit any comments within 30 days of an agency’s proposed rulemaking.

Our lawyers help businesses use the Red Tape Rollback Act at each stage of a rule’s life. We prepare comments and compliance-cost evidence, request hearings and statements of reasons, challenge rules in superior court, and handle appeals.

Bloom Parham has extensive experience assisting clients with navigating administrative processes, from rulemaking, licensing, and permitting proceedings before state agencies to hearings before local boards and commissions. We also offer extensive experience appealing the decisions of administrative bodies when those processes go wrong. Stephen A. Youngblood, who serves as Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia’s Administrative Law Section, has represented clients in regulatory proceedings before federal and state agencies. Kurt Kastorf has guided individuals and businesses through regulatory problems at every stage, from the moment a client learns of an adverse proposed regulation to the appeal of a final decision. Kurt is among the most experienced federal APA lawyers in Georgia and has handled appellate and regulatory matters at the U.S. Department of Justice and WilmerHale. Simon H. Bloom, who previously chaired the state board of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, has spent his career representing developers, property owners, and businesses in zoning, permitting, and tax appeal disputes before local and state decision-makers.

When an agency or board decision goes against a client, our appellate litigation team has the expertise to challenge and overturn the decision, including petitions for review under Georgia’s Superior and State Court Appellate Practice Act. To discuss a proposed rule, a pending agency proceeding, or an adverse administrative decision, reach out to Stephen, Kurt, or Simon.

To discuss a proposed or existing rule, contact us online or call 404-577-7710.