BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2041 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 17, 2012 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER PROTECTION Mary Hayashi, Chair AB 2041 (Swanson) - As Introduced: February 23, 2012 SUBJECT : Regulations: adoption: disability access. SUMMARY : Requires an agency, when submitting a notice of proposed adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL), to include a statement that the agency shall provide, upon request, a description of the proposed changes included in the proposed action, in a manner to accommodate a person with a visual or other disability for which effective communication is required under state or federal law and that doing so may require extending the period of public comment for the proposed action. EXISTING LAW 1)Establishes the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), setting forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. 2)Establishes the OAL for the orderly review of adopted regulations. 3)Requires an agency to provide a narrative description of proposed regulations to persons with visual or other disabilities upon request, and to provide the requester with an extended public comment period, as specified. 4)Establishes the Americans with Disabilities Act under federal law, which states that no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity. FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown COMMENTS: Purpose of this bill . According to the author, "The APA governs AB 2041 Page 2 the procedure for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies. Existing law also requires an agency to publish a notice of proposed action that includes specified information, thus giving the public an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the regulatory process. "Unfortunately, the reading software used by the blind and visually impaired is unable to accurately interpret the formatted text used by state agencies. Assemblymember Swanson's Equal Access to Public Information for the Blind Act (Act), which was signed by Governor Brown and became effective on January 1, 2012 (AB 410, Chapter 495, Statutes of 2011) attempted to fix this problem with respect to specified agencies by requiring those agencies to provide proposed regulations in a narrative format that can be interpreted by the reading software used by the blind. "The Act also required those designated agencies to include in their notice of proposed actions a statement regarding the availability of the new narrative descriptions. Although the Governor signed AB 410 in its entirety, the notice provision was unintentionally chaptered out by another bill. AB 2041 would ensure that the provision is added into law, as was the intent of the original bill." Background . The OAL ensures that agency regulations are clear, necessary, legally valid, and available to the public. The OAL is responsible for reviewing administrative regulations proposed by over 200 state agencies for compliance with the standards set forth in the APA, for transmitting these regulations to the Secretary of State, and for publishing regulations in the California Code of Regulations (CCR). The Federal Register provides legal notice of federal rules and notices and makes them available in narrative description. Previous legislation . AB 410 (Swanson), Chapter 495, Statutes of 2011, requires an agency to provide a narrative description of proposed regulations to persons with visual or other disabilities upon request, and to provide the requester with an extended public comment period, as specified. AB 1787 (Swanson) of 2010 requires agencies to include a AB 2041 Page 3 narrative description of additions and deletions made to the CCR that allows reading software used by the visually impaired to translate those changes made to the CCR. This bill was held in Assembly Appropriations Committee. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support None on file. Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by : Angela Mapp / B.,P. & C.P. / (916) 319-3301