HF 2385 (LSB 5937HV (2) 85)

HOUSE FILE 2385

BY  COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT

(SUCCESSOR TO HF 2157)

(As Amended and Passed by the House 2014-03-12)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to state agency decision making.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 17A.3, subsection 1, paragraph a, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  (1)  Adopt as a rule a description of the organization of the agency which states the general course and method of its operations, the administrative subdivisions of the agency and the programs implemented by each of them, a statement of the mission of the agency, and the methods by which and location where the public may obtain information or make submissions or requests.
   (2)  Each board, commission, or other multimember agency shall follow Robert’s rules of order in governing the conduct of agency meetings unless it is inconsistent with Iowa law.
    Sec. 2.  Section 17A.4, subsection 1, paragraph b, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   b.  (1)  Afford all interested persons not less than twenty days to submit data, views, or arguments in writing, including in an electronic format. If timely requested in writing by twenty-five interested persons, by a governmental subdivision, by the administrative rules review committee, by an agency, or by an association having not less than twenty-five members, the agency must give interested persons an opportunity to make oral presentation.
   (2)  The agency shall provide an opportunity to make these oral presentations using the Iowa communications network or other electronic means if a request is received from twenty-five interested persons residing in the same city or county.
   (3)  The opportunity for oral presentation must be held at least twenty days after publication of the notice of its time and place in the Iowa administrative bulletin. The agency shall consider fully all written and oral submissions respecting the proposed rule. Within one hundred eighty days following either the notice published according to the provisions of paragraph “a” or within one hundred eighty days after the last date of the oral presentations on the proposed rule, whichever is later, the agency shall adopt a rule pursuant to the rulemaking proceeding or shall terminate the proceeding by publishing notice of termination in the Iowa administrative bulletin.
    Sec. 3.  Section 17A.4, subsection 2, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   2.  An agency shall include in a preamble to each rule it adopts a specific reference to the Code section or sections being implemented and a brief explanation of the principal reasons for its action and, if applicable, a brief explanation of the principal reasons for its failure to provide in that rule for the waiver of the rule in specified situations if no such waiver provision is included in the rule. This explanatory requirement does not apply when the agency adopts a rule that only defines the meaning of a provision of law if the agency does not possess delegated authority to bind the courts to any extent with its definition. In addition, if requested to do so by an interested person, either prior to adoption or within thirty days thereafter, the agency shall issue a concise statement of the principal reasons for and against the rule adopted, incorporating therein the reasons for overruling considerations urged against the rule. This concise statement shall be issued either at the time of the adoption of the rule or within thirty-five days after the agency receives the request.
    Sec. 4.  NEW SECTION.  17A.24  Rule implementation of federal statute, regulation, or policy.
   1.  Except as otherwise explicitly authorized by state law, an agency charged with the implementation of a federal statute, regulation, or policy shall not implement the federal statute, regulation, or policy in a manner that exceeds the specific requirements of the federal statute, regulation, or policy.
   2.  Any portion of an agency rule or policy that implements a federal statute, regulation, or policy and that exceeds the specific requirements of the federal statute, regulation, or policy is automatically superceded by the specific requirements of that federal statute, regulation, or policy.