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.