RulesNews

As of January 20, 2006, the following bills affecting administrative rules have been numbered or approved for filing.

S.B. 26. “Administrative Rules Reauthorization” (Sen. H. Stephenson)

The Reauthorization bill is the Administrative Rules Review Committee’s annual bill required by Section 63-46a-11.5. S.B. 26, as introduced, proposes to reauthorize all rules. The Division will continue to monitor the bill and notify agencies if any rules are identified for sunset. More information about S.B. 26 is available at http://www.le.state.ut.us/~2006/htmdoc/sbillhtm/sb0026.htm.

S.B. 157 “Impact of Administrative Rules on Small Businesses” (Sen. H. Stephenson)

S.B. 157, an Administrative Rules Review Committee bill, proposes to amend Title 63, Chapter 46a, Utah Administrative Rulemaking Act, in two ways. It defined “small businesses”. It also modifies Section 63-46a-4, requiring an agency to provide anticipated cost or savings to small businesses and business in general. S.B. 157 is identical to the amended H.B. 209 (2005) that failed. This bill will require changes to eRules, the web application agencies use to file rules. This bill is supported by the Small Business Administration. More information about S.B. 157 is available at http://www.le.state.ut.us/~2006/htmdoc/sbillhtm/sb0157.htm.

Unnumbered “Administrative Rule Criminal Penalty Amendments” (Rep. D. Ure)

This bill, an Administrative Rules Review Committee bill, addresses the criminal penalties issues. These were discussed at the committee’s July 11, November 4, and 22, 2005, and January 13, 2006, meetings. Several agencies submitted alternative language that satisfied the committee’s concerns. This bill proposes to make those changes. As of January 20, the bill will affect the following statutory sections: 4-38-7, 9-4-612, 32A-12-104, 40-6-12, 40-8-9, 41-3-210, 41-3-701, 41-3-702, 41-6a-1115, 51-7-22.4, 53-7-226, 59-14-212, 65A-3-1, and 76-10-1233.

Unnumbered “Administrative Rules Procedure Amendments” (Rep. D. Ure)

This bill, an Administrative Rules Review Committee bill, makes changes to rulemaking procedure. It: (1) imposes an affirmative requirement on agencies to “review and evaluate all public comments submitted in writing or presented at public hearings conducted by the agency,” (2) requires a five business day consideration period following the public comment period before an agency may make a rule effective, (3) defines the phrase “initiate rulemaking proceedings” to mean filing a rule with the Division of Administrative Rules, (4) increases the number of days to consider a petition for rulemaking from 30 to 60 days for agencies, and from 30 to 80 days for boards with an extra requirement that a board place a petition on its agenda within 45 days, and (5) designates a petition to which an agency fails to respond or initiate rulemaking within the specified period as “denied” providing that “the petitioner may seek a writ of mandamus in state district court.”

This information will be updated throughout the session and available at http://www.rules.utah.gov/law/legis.htm.

Section 63-46a-9 requires each agency to review its rules within five years of each rule’s original enactment or last five-year review, and then within five-year intervals. To comply with the review requirement, the agency must submit a “Five-Year Notice of Review and Statement of Continuation” for each of its rules listed below. Otherwise, the rules will expire. Reviews may be filed ANY TIME prior to the deadline.

When filing a “Five-Year Notice of Review and Statement of Continuation,” eRules requires that a copy of the rule text (no underlining or strike-out) be attached. Please contact Nancy Lancaster (801-538-3218) or Mike Broschinsky (801-538-3003) to obtain a current version of your rule.

We strongly encourage agencies not to wait until the due date to file a five-year review. (If there is a problem filing on that day, agencies could lose rules because the deadline was missed.)

The Division sends quarterly E-mail notices to agencies of rules due for review. As of January 18, 2006, the following rules are due for review before the end of 2006.

Read the rest of this entry »

Please follow these recommendations when filing rules:

1. Always obtain an RTF version of the rule text from the Division before you start to prepare an amendment or a repeal. This is available from the Division’s web site or by contacting the division and requesting a copy.
2. Always mark changes to the text: added text must be underlined; deleted text must be surrounded by brackets and must be struck out. Do not use Microsoft Word’s “word underline” command to show added text. This feature uses different codes to mark the text, and is therefore treated differently. In order to ensure that the rule text you prepare is processed the way you intend, please use only the standard underlining feature when you are preparing additions to rule text.
3. Always cross check all dates you enter on the form with the “Rulemaking Time Frames” schedule before you click the submit button.
4. Check that the authorization date at the end of the form is not a date after the date the rule filing is submitted.
5. Check that the Notices of Effective Dates are not retroactive. The notice must be received, submitted in eRules, on or before the date you want it to be effective.

If you have questions about rule filings, please contact Nancy Lancaster (801-538-3218).

The Division has made minor modifications to the format of administrative rules. These changes affect the annotations — indexing terms, date of last substantive amendment and continuation, and indexing citation — appearing at the end of each rule. These items have been set flush left. Explanatory text precedes date of last substantive amendment and the indexing citations. The keywords (key terms) are plural when possible. The rule authority citations, no longer appearing on separate lines, are separated by semicolons. For example:

KEY: taxation, franchises, historic preservation, trucking industries

Date of Enactment or Last Substantive Amendment: July 20, 2005

Notice of Continuation: April 3, 2002

Authorizing, and Implemented or Interpreted Law: 9-2-401 through 9-2-415; 16-10a-1501 through 16-10a-1533; 53B-8a-112; 59-6-102; 59-7-101; 59-7-102; 59-7-104 through 59-7-106; 59-7-108; 59-7-109; 59-7-110; 59-7-112; 59-7-302 through 59-7-321; 59-7-402; 59-7-403; 59-7-501; 59-7-502; 59-7-505; 59-7-601 through 59-7-614; 59-7-608; 59-7-701; 59-7-703; 59-10-603; 59-13-202

If you have questions or concerns about these formatting changes, please call Nancy Lancaster (801-538-3218) or Mike Broschinsky (801-538-3003).

Update: Please note, in the rule text, this information is still set in boldface type. Also, the citations may include references to statute, federal statute, federal regulation, the Constitution, and case law.

The Division of Administrative Rules invites you to schedule a training seminar with us anytime between now and May 31, 2006. Chris Fawcett is going on the road to meet with agencies to provide training to those new to the rules process, answer questions for anyone already working with rules, and address common mistakes made by agencies. This can be done in groups or on an individual basis. Please call Chris at 538-3218 or E-mail him at cfawcett@utah.gov to schedule a date and time for training.

The Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee (ARRC) has scheduled its next meeting for Friday, January 13 at 9:00 a.m. in room W135 of the House Office Building (Capitol Hill). The agenda for the meeting indicates that the ARRC will discuss three bills. These include: Administrative Rules Reauthorization, Impact of Administrative Rules on Small Businesses, and Administrative Rules Procedure Amendments. Copies of these bills have not yet been made available on the Internet.