BILL ANALYSIS �
Bill No: AB
410
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Senator Roderick D. Wright, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
Bill Analysis
AB 410 Author: Swanson
As Amended: May 27, 2011
Hearing Date: June 28, 2011
Consultant: Paul Donahue
SUBJECT : Regulation adoption; Disability access
SUMMARY : Requires specified state agencies to provide a
narrative description of proposed regulations to persons
with visual disabilities upon request, and to provide the
requester with an extended public comment period, as
specified.
Existing law :
1) Prohibits the exclusion of a qualified individual with a
disability, by reason of that disability, from
participation in or equal access to the benefits of the
services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or to
be subjected to discrimination by a public entity.
2) The Administrative Procedure Act establishes rulemaking
procedures and standards for the adoption, amendment, or
repeal of regulations by state agencies charged with the
enforcement of state laws, and for the review of those
regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law
(OAL). (Govt. Code � 11340 et seq.)
3) Requires an agency to publish a notice of proposed
action that includes specified information, at least 45
days prior to a hearing and the close of the public comment
period.
This bill :
1) Requires an agency when submitting a notice of proposed
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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 in doing so may require
extending the period of public comment for the proposed
action.
2) Requires an agency, upon request from a person with a
visual disability or other disability for which effective
communication is required under state or federal law, to
provide that person a narrative description of the
additions to and deletions from the California Code of
Regulations (CCR) or other publication. This requirement
is limited to the following proposed regulations:
a) Regulations adopted by the Department of
Rehabilitation;
b) Regulations that must be submitted to the
California Building Standards Commission that pertain
to disability access compliance, as specified;
c) Regulations adopted by the State Department of
Education that pertain to special education; and,
d) Regulations that pertain to the Medi-Cal program.
3) Provides that the narrative description:
a) Identify each addition to or deletion from CCR by
reference to the subdivision, paragraph, subparagraph,
clause or sub clause within the proposed regulation
containing the addition or deletion; and,
b) Provide the express language proposed to be added
to or deleted from CCR or other publication and any
portion of the surrounding language necessary to
understand the change in a manner that allows for
accurate translation by reading software used by the
visually impaired.
4) Requires the agency to provide the narrative description
within 10 days, unless the agency determines that it would
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be impractical and notifies the requester of the date on
which the narrative description will be provided.
5) Requires an agency to provide the requester at least 45
days from the date upon which the narrative description was
provided to submit a public comment regarding the proposed
regulation, regardless of any other existing law.
6) Prohibits the agency from taking final action to adopt
the regulation until the requester has submitted a public
comment or the extended 45-day comment has period expired,
whichever occurs first.
7) Requires an agency that adopts a proposed regulation
subject to the above requirements to submit a report for
calendar years 2012 and 2013 to the Governor and the
Legislature that specifies the number of requests submitted
for a narrative description of a proposed regulation and
the number actually provided. This reporting requirement
becomes inoperative on February 1, 2018.
8) States legislative intent to evaluate reports required
above to determine whether the requirements of this bill
should be applied to all regulations adopted by all
agencies.
9) Provides that nothing in this bill shall be construed to
limit the duty of a state agency to meet its obligations
pursuant to federal and state law to take appropriate steps
to ensure communications with participants and members of
the public with disabilities are as effective as
communications with others.
COMMENTS :
1) In general : The APA governs the adoption of regulations
by state agencies for purposes of ensuring that they are
clear, necessary, legally valid, and available to the
public. In seeking adoption of a proposed regulation,
state agencies must comply with procedural requirements
that include (1) publishing the proposed regulation along
with supporting statement of reasons, (2) publishing a
notice of the proposed action 45 days before a hearing or
before the close of the public comment period, and (3)
submitting a final statement to OAL that summarizes and
responds to all objections, recommendations and proposed
alternatives that were raised during the public comment
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period. The OAL is then required to approve or reject the
proposed regulation within 30 days.
This bill is similar to AB 1787 (Swanson) of 2010, which
also required agencies to include a narrative description
of additions and deletions made to CCR for the visually
impaired. However, AB 410 (Swanson) is narrower in focus
in that it only requires agencies to comply with the new
requirement upon request.
2) Support : Supporters note that the state's current
practice of using typographic variations in its published
notices of proposed regulations to indicate changes to
regulations in strikeout and underline format makes it
extremely difficult for those of us who are blind to know
the nature of such changes because we cannot distinguish
the italics or strikeout text from the rest of the language
in the documents. AB 410 would give visually impaired and
blind Californians equal access to the information about
regulatory changes. Supporters state that the federal
government already uses narrative text to identify changed
language in the Federal Register, and that California
should adopt this practice.
3) Related legislation :
AB 1787 (Swanson, 2010) would have required any agency
making changes to state regulations to provide those
changes in narrative format. Stated legislative intent to
require state agencies to provide regulation amendments in
a narrative format that can be accurately translated by
reading software used for the visually impaired. (Held in
Assembly Appropriations Committee)
SUPPORT:
California Council of the Blind
OPPOSE:
None on file
FISCAL COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
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