On May 12, 2026, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed HB 1247 into law. The bill, which supporters call the Georgia Bureaucratic Deference Elimination Act, requires Georgia agencies to submit economic impact analyses of their rules to the legislature, and restricts the practice of judicial deference by state courts.

The portion of the bill that contained the judicial deference provisions was passed 98-63 by the Georgia House of Representatives on March 4. The Georgia Senate amended the bill to include provisions of another bill, called the Red Tape Rollback Act, which changed agency economic analysis requirements for rulemaking. The Senate passed this amended version of the bill March 25, 48-2, sending the bill back to the House. The House added its own amendments (which included exempting specific agencies' rules from reporting requirements), and passed the amended bill 98-70 on April 2. The Senate then passed the House-amended bill on April 3, with a vote of 34-18.

The bill was introduced in the House February 9 by seven sponsors, all Republicans. In the House, 63 Democrats voted no, and one Democrat joined 97 Republicans in voting yes in the March 4 vote. 70 Democrats voted no, and two Democrats joined 96 Republicans in voting yes in the April 2 vote on the twice-amended bill.

In the Senate, two Democrats voted no and 18 Democrats joined 30 Republicans in voting yes in the March 25 vote. 17 Democrats and one Republican voted no, and three Democrats and 31 Republicans voted yes in the April 3 vote that sent the bill to Gov. Kemp’s desk.

What does the new law do?

HB 1247 makes several changes that reduce state agencies’ power in Georgia.

It restricts the practice of judicial deference, in which state courts defer to agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous legal text. The bill prohibits courts from deferring to agency interpretations “when interpreting this state's Constitution, statutes, or published rules.” Georgia is the third state to comprehensively end state-level judicial deference practices in 2026, with Kansas and Alabama having enacted similar bills. South Dakota also enacted a 2026 bill which restricted judicial deference in the narrower instance of determining whether a proposed regulation exceeds an expected cost threshold.

The new law also requires rulemaking agencies to analyze the expected economic impact of a proposed rule. The bill requires agencies to submit this economic impact analysis to the Legislature as part of the rulemaking process. An economic impact analysis of some sort is a typical requirement of state-level rulemaking according to Ballotpedia research, with 47 states (including Georgia) requiring such analysis as of 2025.

It strengthens legislative control over rulemaking by making it easier for legislators to block a proposed rule. It did so by changing existing requirements for a legislative resolution to disapprove of a proposed rule from a two-thirds vote to a majority vote. It also deleted existing language under which a gubernatorial veto of such a resolution would allow the rule to go into effect, meaning that the governor no longer has the ability to override a resolution of disapproval. According to reporting from the Georgia Policy Center, Gov. Kemp indicated in a signing statement that he would have preferred the change from a two-thirds vote to a majority vote requirement to happen via constitutional amendment rather than statute.

It requires each state agency to submit a report analyzing its extant rules to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget every five years, starting in 2028. Requirements for this analysis will be developed by the Office of Planning and Budget in consultation with the House of Representatives Budget and Research Office and the Senate Budget and Evaluation Office.

It requires the Governor to report agency compliance to the Legislature the year after agencies file their five-year report, and an individual legislator may make an inquiry about a report that the agency must answer within 30 days. Rules promulgated to meet a federal mandate, and rules promulgated by certain state agencies are exempt from these requirements. A rule that “states the general course and methodology of an agency's operations and the methods whereby the public may obtain information or make submissions or requests,” or that includes “a rule of practice" is also excepted. The bill as passed also included provisions unrelated to the administrative state.