The Peru Gazette

Executive Order Directs State Agencies to Methodically Review Regulations and Laws to Identify Opportunities for Modernization or Efficiencies

Albany, July 9, 2026 NYS News Release – Governor Kathy Hochul today issued an Executive Order to commence New York’s “Regulatory Reset,” a comprehensive and methodical review of thousands of regulations and laws across all state agencies, to improve the functioning and efficiency of state government. Through this “Regulatory Reset,” agencies will reform outdated regulations, fees, and requirements that waste New Yorkers’ time, and make sure that taxpayer dollars are being put to good use.

The “Regulatory Reset” Executive Order specifically directs agencies to review the following opportunities for modernization and reform:

• Outdated requirements in regulations that add unnecessary burdens for New Yorkers, including requiring people to mail or fax information, submit wet signatures or multiple physical copies of documents, file information in person, or notarize documents.
• Burdensome fees and fines imposed on individuals and small businesses which drive up costs without generating meaningful revenue for the State.
• Mandated reports and boards, commissions, and councils that state agencies are dedicating significant resources to, but no longer serve the public interest.

Working with government reform and tech non-profits and academic researchers, the state has identified thousands of potential opportunities for reform using AI-enabled tools. Agency experts will now be tasked with thoroughly reviewing all identified regulations and rules to determine the best path forward. All final recommendations in the “Regulatory Reset” will be extensively vetted and evaluated by experts at state agencies and in the Governor’s office before proceeding. Potential reforms will be advanced either through the regulatory and rulemaking process or through statutory updates to be developed in collaboration with the New York State Legislature. The first wave of actions taken in the “Regulatory Reset” are expected to be announced later this year.

New York’s “Regulatory Reset” is the nation’s most expansive state effort to systematically review outdated regulations and improve government efficiency. To advance the “Regulatory Reset,” New York enlisted the support of nation-leading tech and academic partners at the Recoding America Fund, US Digital Response, and Stanford University’s RegLab. The Recoding America Fund and US Digital Response, two nonprofits focused on improving state capacity and government’s ability to deliver services and outcomes, assisted the “Regulatory Reset” using AI-enabled models to identify outdated and burdensome regulations and to catalog fees. Stanford RegLab’s interdisciplinary team of engineers, data scientists and social scientists partnered with New York State and utilized AI-enabled tools to generate all mandatory reports and boards, commissions, and councils in New York State regulations and statutes into digestible formats for agencies to review. This unprecedented effort is made possible by leveraging cutting edge AI tools, while ensuring strong human safeguards at every step of the process and elevating the expertise of state officials in the decision making process.

Read Executive Order Here