BILL ANALYSIS
Bill No: AB
1857
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Senator Edward Vincent, Chair
2001-2002 Regular Session
Staff Analysis
AB 1857 Author: Wayne
As Amended: June 12, 2002
Hearing Date: June 18, 2002
Consultant: Steve Hardy
SUBJECT
Administrative Procedures Act
DESCRIPTION
AB 1857 clarifies and refines the administrative rulemaking
procedure based on recommendations of the California Law
Revision Commission. Specifically, this bill:
1.Expands the requirement that an agency publish certain
rulemaking documents on its website to include the text
of a proposed emergency rulemaking action and the date
the proposed action is submitted to the Office of
Administrative Law.
2.Provides that rulemaking documents shall be posted on
issuance and remain posted until at least 15 days after
the end of the rulemaking process.
3.Clarifies requirements that an agency must describe
reasonable alternatives to a proposed regulation and
reasonable alternatives that would lessen any adverse
impact on small business. It does this by stating that
both requirements are subject to the existing rule that
an agency need not "artificially construct alternatives
or justify why it has not identified alternatives" and
revises these provisions to make them more uniform.
4.Replaces ambiguous provisions with a requirement that an
agency representative either responds to the substantive
AB 1857 (Wayne) continued
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questions regarding inquiries on proposed regulations or
directs them to another person in the agency for a prompt
response.
5.Adjusts the scope of the exemption that the Fish and Game
Commission has from certain time periods specified in the
rulemaking procedure by including a recently added time
period that should have been covered in previous
legislation but was not.
6. Makes several other technical, clarifying and
correcting amendments.
PRIOR/RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 1822 (Wayne) Chapter 1060, Statutes of 2000. Measure
similar to this making considerable more technical
clarifying updating and correcting amendments to the
Administrative Procedures Act.
EXISTING LAW
Under the Administrative Procedure Act , existing law
details the requirements that regulations must adhere to
prior to their adoption. These requirements include public
comment periods on proposed regulations, review periods,
publication requirements, and implementation procedures.
The Office of Administrative Law is the state government
entity that oversees the adoption of proposed regulations.
BACKGROUND
The author is carrying this bill on behalf of the
California Law Review Commission (CLRC). According to the
CRLC, this bill is the product of the Commission's
recommendation on Administrative Rulemaking Refinements
(February 2002). This recommendation addresses rulemaking
issues not previously considered by the Commission in prior
legislation, AB 1822 (Wayne), Chapter 1060, Statutes of
2000. The most recent amendments make additional technical
correcting amendments to the Act.
AB 1857 (Wayne) continued
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SUPPORT: California Law Revision Commission (Sponsor)
OPPOSE: None registered as of 6/14/02
FISCAL COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations
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