The officers of the Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) Section have posted a tentative agenda for the Winter 2010 meeting. The meeting is scheduled for January 29 through February 1, 2010, in Washington, D.C. The agenda includes a discussion of DC rulemaking publications, a visit to the Government Printing Office, Virginia’s APA Study, and other sessions. More information is available on the ACR web site at http://www.administrativerules.org/.
The Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA) drafting committee of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) met October 16-18, 2009, in Chicago. The committee was able to cover its agenda. which focused on Articles 4 (Adjudications), 5 (Judicial Review), and 6 (Administrative Law Judge Central Panel). Information relied upon for the October 2009 meeting, including a redlined draft, is available on the NCCUSL MSAPA Committee web site.
The committee is scheduled to hold a conference call in January 2010. The agenda will include a review of comments made during the 2009 summer conference reading.
The committee is also scheduled to meet in February 2010.
The Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) section will hold its annual summer conference in conjunction with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) summer conference in Minneapolis, MN, July 16-19, 2009. Meetings will be held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This shorter schedule was approved by the NASS Executive Board to reduce travel-related expenses for attendees.
Registration for the conference is available online at http://www.nass.org/ (or directly at http://nass.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=93&Itemid=299). The early registration deadline is June 15, 2009.
ACR Program Chair, Debbie Ritzko (NY), has put together a great agenda. The tentative agenda includes:
- West Publishing Site Visit
- User Friendly E-Government – Spencer Gerrol and Jeff Horvath, Phd., Human Factors International
- Website Usability-Designing Simple & Effective: Getting There Step-by-step – Spencer Gerrol and Jeff Horvath, Phd., Human Factors International
- Colborn Award and Demonstration
- Rules and Regulation / Laws comparison – Elizabeth Palen, Virginia Legislature
- Roundtable: Impact of Fiscal and/or organizational change – Dan Proctor, Texas Register and Kevin Fetherston, BNA
- Model State Administrative Procedure Act Update, John Martinez, Director, Administrative Law Division, New Mexico Commission of Public Records – State Records Center and archives
- Authentication of On-line State Legal Materials Michelle Timmons, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes
- Creating on-line forms, evolution of on-line forms – Scott Cancelosi
- Minnesota Rule Making
See http://www.administrativerules.org/ for agenda updates.
Uniform Law Commission (ULC) leadership has granted the Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA) drafting committee an extension. The MSAPA was to have been completed and up for final approval at this summer’s ULC conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 9 – 16, 2009.
In an e-mail announcing the decision, John Sebert, ULC Executive Director, said:
This July [2009] the Committee will read the rulemaking provisions – Articles 2, 3, 7 and the relevant definitions in Article 1 – and after them as many of the judicial review provisions of Articles 4, 4A, 5 and 6 (and the related definitions in Article 1) as time permits. Consideration in July 2010 will be focused almost exclusively on the judicial review provisions. MSAPA will have its final consideration, and a vote by the states, in July 2010.
A copy of the current draft and related information is available online at http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=234.
The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) has scheduled the final Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA) drafting committee meeting for March 27-29, 2009, in Chicago, IL. The Committee is scheduled to discuss rulemaking and rules review issues at the meeting. John Martinez, New Mexico Administrative Law Division Director, will represent Administrative Codes and Registers at the meeting.
Senator Howard Stephenson, co-chair of Utah’s legislative Administrative Rules Review Committee, is sponsoring a bill to enlarge the role of the committee in new ways. S.B. 64, entitled “Administrative Rules Review Committee,” expands the authority of the committee to include the review of “any appropriation made by the Legislature … to ensure that the entity to which the funds were appropriated complies with any expressed legislative intent concerning the appropriation.” Under the provisions of the bill, the Committee reports its findings of noncompliance to the Legislature’s Executive Appropriations Committee. The bill does not authorize any other direct action by the Administrative Rules Review Committee.
Utah created its Administrative Rules Review Committee in 1983. The ten-member legislative committee currently has authority to review proposed and effective administrative rules and to prepare omnibus legislation to reauthorize administrative rules every year (see H.B. 197 for this year’s reauthorization bill). More information about Utah’s Administrative Rules Review Committee is available at http://www.rules.utah.gov/arrc.htm.
UPDATE – 3/12/2009 — S.B. 64 encountered opposition in the House due to concerns that the additional authority to review appropriations (expenditures) would diminish the Administrative Rules Review Committee’s focus on administrative rules. Rep. Ben Ferry, House Chair of the Administrative Rules Review Committee, sponsored H.J.R. 23, amending joint legislative rules, giving the authority to review appropriations directly to the Legislature’s Executive Appropriations Committee.
The Virginia House of Delegates passed a constitutional amendment (first resolution) that provides that the General Assembly may suspend or nullify any or all portions of any administrative rule or regulation by joint resolution agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each house. View the progress of House Joint Resolution 731.
Our office is watching House Bill 2240 currently in the Legislature which would limit new rulemaking in the State of Arizona.
The text of the bill is as follows:
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Title 41, chapter 6, article 3, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 41-1021.03, to read:
41-1021.03. Moratorium on rule making relating to increased monetary or regulatory costs; exceptions
A. Notwithstanding any other law, an agency shall not conduct any rule making that would impose increased monetary or regulatory costs on other state agencies, political subdivisions of this state, persons or individuals.
B. Subsection A does not apply to rule making for any of the following:
1. To avoid a violation of a court order or federal law that would result in sanctions by the court or federal government to an agency in fiscal year 2008‑2009 or 2009‑2010 for failure to conduct the rule making action.
2. To prevent an imminent threat to the public health or safety. For the purposes of this paragraph, “imminent threat to the public health or safety” means the existence of a condition, circumstance or practice that would cause death, serious illness or severe injury to persons or adversely affect the ability of health care institutions to provide medical care during fiscal year 2008‑2009 or 2009‑2010.
Will keep you posted of the outcome of this legislation.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2009/02/06/20090206moratorium0206.html
Janice K. Brewer, former Arizona Secretary of State, was sworn in as governor on January 21, 2009. Former Governor Janet Napolitano stepped down to become director of Homeland Security.
Gov. Brewer’s first official act was the release of a memorandum dated January 22, 2009.
A copy of the memo is posted on the Secretary of State’s Web site.
http://www.azsos.gov/public_services/Register/SDOC4287.pdf
As the filing and publishing office for administrative rules the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office received many questions the first week after the release of this memo. As the filing office we simply gave agencies the mechanism to withdrawn proposed rulemakings under the memo.
Q & As were posted on the Secretary of State’s Web page to help rulewriter’s understand our position.
http://www.azsos.gov/public_services/faq.htm
The Governor’s Office did release a statement about the memo. It is clear that the office is reviewing the rules not to burden agencies, but to “assess where the regulatory burdens lie and determine how they are appropriately or inappropriately impacting the citizens of Arizona.”
For a copy of the Governor’s press release see
http://azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/NR_012209_RegulatoryBurdens.pdf
I will keep ACR members posted on the outcome of the review of the rules by the Governor’s Office.
Scott Cancelosi
Director, Public Services Division
Arizona Secretary of State
The Uniform Law Commission’s drafting committee to revise the Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA) will meet November 14 through 16, 2008, in Denver, CO. Information that the committee will consider is posted online at http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=234. The draft MSAPA is scheduled for its final reading at the Summer ULC meeting scheduled for July 9 through 16, 2009, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Some changes have recently been made to the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall home page (townhall.virginia.gov) aimed to make the site easier to navigate.
Here are the main changes:
* The Menu bar on the left has been shortened to focus on major categories of information.
* The Search Tool is more prominently displayed. This feature allows you to search titles of regulations, regulatory actions,meetings, guidance documents, mandates, petitions for rulemaking, and general notices.
* Under Browse Regulations on the menu bar, you will see a list of all regulations broken down by board. Using the tabs near the top of the page, you can also search regulations by agency, secretary, and VAC citation.
* Under Regulatory Activity on the menu bar, you will see all regulatory actions underway. Using the tabs near the top of the page, you can also view regulatory actions based on a periodic review of the regulation, a petition for rulemaking, or a legislative mandate (where the legislature has required a regulation to be changed).
* On the page for viewing and entering public comments, you can now view regulatory documents, e.g., the agency background statement explaining what is changing and why, as well as the text of a proposed regulation, and we encourage you to view these before you enter a public comment.
We’re always trying to make the Town Hall more user friendly so if you have any suggestions or comments, we would love to hear from you. Just email melanie.west@dpb.virginia.gov.
The Website Committee has completed ACR’s new website and it is now up and running at its brand new location at http://www.administrativerules.org/
The NASS website now links to us at our new location.
A great big Thank You to Candy Herring, and her co-worker Sean Mueller, Scott Cancelosi, Jeff Hague and Debbie Rizko who have all spent a lot of time and effort on the construction and fine tuning of our new website, and it has turned out beautifully.
Please send Candy (candy.herring@sos.state.co.us), Jeff (Jeffrey.Hague@state.de.us), Scott (scancelosi@azsos.gov), or Debbie (debbie.ritzko@dos.state.ny.us) updates or corrections to be posted.
Click on the link http://www.covits.org/governor’s_technology_awards/index.cfm and scroll down to see a picture of ACR members Lilli Hausenfluck and Joe Johnson with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine after receiving the 2008 Governor’s Technology Award in the category of “Cross-boundary Collaboration.” Also in the photo (far right) is Melanie West, Director of the Economic and Regulatory Analysis Division of the Department of Planning and Budget, who was also an award recipient.
Virginia nominated Virginia’s Regulation Information System and Town Hall for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers’ (NASCIO) 2008 Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology under the category “Cross-Boundary Collaboration and Partnerships.” Although Virginia was not selected as a finalist, the project nomination is posted on the NASCIO website at http://www.nascio.org/awards/2008Awards/collaboration.cfm as part of the state IT Best Practices database in NASCIO’s Recognition Award Archive. Also, a demo of the system is available at http://leg5.state.va.us/risdemo/.
Here is an article that was published in the June/July 2008 issue of Virginia Lawyers Magazine relating to online official legal resources:
http://www.vsb.org/docs/valawyermagazine/vl0708_valaw-online.pdf
Members of Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR), a section of the National Association of Secretaries of State, elected new officers at a business meeting held July 27, 2008. Julie Yamaka (OR) will serve as president; John Martinez (NM) will serve as vice president; and Scott Cancelosi (AZ) will serve as secretary/treasurer/historian. ACR elects its officers to two-year terms.
ACR Officers: Scott Cancelosi (AZ), Julie Yamaka (OR), and John Martinez (NM)
On July 27, 2008, Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) recognized the work of the Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office and Jon Davidson for their work to make Arkansas rules accessible.
Jon Davidson (AR, left) receives Colborn Award from Dennis Stevenson (ID, right).
Jon Davidson (AR; left) receives the Colborn award from Dennis Stevenson (ID; Colborn Committee Chair; right).
Of Arkansas’ and Mr. Davidson’s efforts, Mr. Stevenson observed:
The Arkansas Register is a bit of a Cinderella story and, while technically this system is not as elaborate or complex as many we’ve seen in other states, the fact that Jon was dedicated to elevating the Arkansas Register to its proper place in the hierarchy of Arkansas state government documents reflects not only why ACR created the Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award, but goes to the very core of what ACR is and why it exists. What has happened with the Arkansas Register is a great example of a rising ACR ocean lifting all boats.
As [the awards] committee, we recognized that for each state that has a state of the art electronic system, there is another state where the Code and Register editors are still in the trenches fighting to make its own government understand the importance of its administrative rules and the difference they make in people’s lives. The Arkansas Register has shown the importance of making a state’s rules and policies available to the public and that open government always makes for better government.
More information is available from the AR Secretary of State’s Office, and from ACR’s web site.
Administrative Codes and Registers will be meeting with the National Association of Secretaries of State at its annual conference in Grand Rapids, MI, July 25 through July 28, 2008. This conference marks ACR’s 30th anniversary. ACR was formed in 1978 in St. Louis, MO. The ACR conference agenda is available at http://www.nass.org/acr/acr.html.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has recently issued two reports looking at Federal rulemaking.
- February 11, 2008: RL34354 — Congressional Influences on Rulemaking Through Appropriations Provisions
- February 12, 2008: RL34355 — The Regulatory Flexibility Act: Implementation Issues and Proposed Reforms
The CRS does not make its reports available directly to the public. Open CRS — a “project of the Center for Democracy and Technology, … provides citizens access to CRS Reports that are already in the public domain” at http://opencrs.cdt.org/.
The following notice is provided by Commissioner Francis J. Pavetti, Chair of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws Model State Administrative Procedure Act Drafting Committee.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) is revising its Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA). NCCUSL invites organizations and individuals interested in state administrative agency processes to participate in this effort.
NCCUSL is a 117 year old national organization of lawyers, judges and law professors who are appointed to represent their states in drafting and seeking enactment of uniform laws to facilitate commerce and certainty in the law among the states. For more information about NCCUSL, visit http://www.nccusl.org/.
The goal of the MSAPA drafting committee is to make the administrative process more efficient, accessible and fair. The most recent draft of MSAPA is available at http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=234. The drafting process will not be completed until the spring of 2009. The MSAPA drafting committee invites interested parties to attend committee meetings as an observer and make comments and suggestions at the meetings or by submitting them in writing. To become an observer, please contact Ms. Leang Sou at NCCUSL at (312) 915-0488 or at leang.sou@nccusl.org . Submit written comments about the MSAPA to Commissioner Francis J. Pavetti, 18 The Strand, Goshen Point, Waterford, CT 06385.
UPDATE: The NCCUSL office moved the first week of January. The new phone number is (312) 450-6606.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) has posted the latest draft of the Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA), and related information, on its web site — http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=234. The draft is available in several electronic formats, including PDF, Word, ASCII, and HTML. It is also available with redlining to show the most recent changes, or as a clean copy. The MSAPA drafting committee meets November 9 through 11 in Denver, CO.
A new feature on the Secretary of State’s website offers streamlined access to state agency rules and regulations. The changes have further opened the doors of government to the public, allowing a simpler method for following public hearings and tracking changes in public policy as they are proposed and implemented. An expanded search engine makes it simple to explore administrative rules online using search fields that include the name of the agency, rule title or number, keywords, file dates and type of rule. New filings are also available in “real time” as they are added to the database. Previously rules were listed online by filing numbers only, a system that was difficult for members of the general public to navigate. The improvements now allow instant access to the full text of rules that have been filed electronically with the office since 2001. With more than 75,000 hits to the rules section of the website each month, this expanded service is a welcome addition for the rule-filing agencies, law firms, publishing houses and general public who reference these documents. More than a year in development and testing, the features were designed in cooperation with administrative rules and information technology staff members and the Information Network of Arkansas. To access the site, visit www.sos.arkansas.gov and click on “Research State Agency Rules and Regs” under the Elections section.
Virginia’s Administrative Law Advisory Committee (ALAC) is back in business. After a 5-year moratorium, the Virginia Code Commission reinstated ALAC to assist the Commission with its oversight authority over the operation and effectiveness of the Virginia Administrative Process Act and Virginia Register Act. ALAC is a 12-member committee consisting of representatives from the business community, local government, the state bar, state agencies, the academic community, the Virginia Supreme Court, public interest associations and other interested parties.
The following is a partial list of legislative changes that were made between 1994 and 2001 as a result of ALAC’s work:
- Eliminate requirement to publish regulatory notices in newspaper
- Require annual filing and publication of agency guidance document lists
- Clarify steps a petitioner must take to perfect a petition for rulemaking and agency responsibilities, including publication in the Virginia Register
- Establish fast-track rulemaking process for non-controversial regulations
ALAC’s first meeting was held September 27 and the inital suggested workplan will be presented to the Virginia Code Commission for its approval at its October meeting.
The suggested workplan consists of the following issues:
- Administrative Process Act exemptions study. Currently, over 75 exemptions exist within Virginia’s APA and others are scattered throughout the Code of Virginia and in enactments of Acts of Assembly;
- Incorporation by reference in the promulgation process;
- Appeals of administrative decisions;
- Stay abreast of the work of the Model State Administrative Procedure Act NCCUSL drafting committee
For further information, go to ALAC’s website at http://legis.state.va.us/codecomm/alac/alac.htm.
Back in 2003, the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice initiated a project to assess the need for an administrative procedure act that could apply to interstate compacts. The project is nearing completion. Information about the project is available at http://www.abanet.org/adminlaw/interstate/home.html.
This past spring, the American Association of Law Librarians issued its report on “State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources.” For more information, see the April 5, 2007, post entitled “AALL Report on the Authentication of State Primary Legal Resources.”
As a step toward addressing the issue of authentication raised by the AALL report, Utah’s Division of Administrative Rules has added Message-Digest algorithm 5 (MD5) authentication to publication files. An MD5 hash is, in essence, a signature for a file. A user can confirm the integrity of a specific file the user downloads by comparing the MD5 hash provided by the Division with one that the user generates. More information about Utah’s response is posted at http://rulesnews.utah.gov/archives/000667.html.
