Minnesota Session Laws - 1990, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1990 

                        CHAPTER 422-H.F.No. 2462 
           An act relating to state government; regulating 
          administrative procedures; including a statement of 
          purpose; requiring agencies to send the LCRAR copies 
          of statements of need and reasonableness; requiring an 
          agency to provide notice of the hearing to those who 
          requested it; making various technical changes; 
          amending Minnesota Statutes 1988, sections 14.03; 
          14.131; 14.23; and 14.25; Minnesota Statutes 1989 
          Supplement, section 14.02, subdivision 4; proposing 
          coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 14. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  [14.001] [STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.] 
    The purposes of the administrative procedure act are:  
    (1) to provide oversight of powers and duties delegated to 
administrative agencies; 
    (2) to increase public accountability of administrative 
agencies; 
    (3) to ensure a uniform minimum procedure; 
    (4) to increase public access to governmental information; 
    (5) to increase public participation in the formulation of 
administrative rules; 
    (6) to increase the fairness of agencies in their conduct 
of contested case proceedings; and 
    (7) to simplify the process of judicial review of agency 
action as well as increase its ease and availability.  
    In accomplishing its objectives, the intention of this 
chapter is to strike a fair balance between these purposes and 
the need for efficient, economical, and effective government 
administration.  The chapter is not meant to alter the 
substantive rights of any person or agency.  Its impact is 
limited to procedural rights with the expectation that better 
substantive results will be achieved in the everyday conduct of 
state government by improving the process by which those results 
are attained. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1989 Supplement, section 14.02, 
subdivision 4, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 4.  [RULE.] "Rule" means every agency statement of 
general applicability and future effect, including amendments, 
suspensions, and repeals of rules, adopted to implement or make 
specific the law enforced or administered by it that agency or 
to govern its organization or procedure.  It does not include 
(a) rules concerning only the internal management of the agency 
or other agencies, and which do not directly affect the rights 
of or procedure available to the public; (b) rules of the 
commissioner of corrections relating to the placement and 
supervision of inmates serving a supervised release term, the 
internal management of institutions under the commissioner's 
control and those rules governing the inmates thereof prescribed 
pursuant to section 609.105; (c) rules of the division of game 
and fish published in accordance with section 97A.051; (d) rules 
relating to weight limitations on the use of highways when the 
substance of the rules is indicated to the public by means of 
signs; (e) opinions of the attorney general; (f) the systems 
architecture plan and long-range plan of the state education 
management information system provided by section 121.931; (g) 
the data element dictionary and the annual data acquisition 
calendar of the department of education to the extent provided 
by section 121.932; (h) the occupational safety and health 
standards provided in section 182.655.  
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 14.03, is amended 
to read: 
    14.03 [APPLICABILITY NONAPPLICABILITY.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE GENERALLY.] The 
administrative procedure act in sections 14.01 14.001 to 14.69 
does not apply to (a) agencies directly in the legislative or 
judicial branches, (b) emergency powers in sections 12.31 to 
12.37, (c) the department of military affairs, (d) the 
comprehensive health association provided in section 62E.10, (e) 
the tax court provided by section 271.06, or (f) the regents of 
the University of Minnesota.  
    Subd. 2.  [CONTESTED CASE PROCEDURE PROCEDURES.] The 
contested case procedures of the administrative procedure act 
provided in sections 14.57 to 14.69 do not apply to (a) the 
Minnesota municipal board, (b) the commissioner of corrections, 
(c) the unemployment insurance program and the social security 
disability determination program in the department of jobs and 
training, (d) the director of mediation services, (e) the 
workers' compensation division in the department of labor and 
industry, (f) the workers' compensation court of appeals, (g) 
the board of pardons, or (h) the public employment relations 
board.  
     Subd. 3.  [RULEMAKING PROCEDURES.] The definition of a rule 
in section 14.02, subdivision 4, does not include: 
    (1) rules concerning only the internal management of the 
agency or other agencies that do not directly affect the rights 
of or procedures available to the public; 
    (2) rules of the commissioner of corrections relating to 
the placement and supervision of inmates serving a supervised 
release term, the internal management of institutions under the 
commissioner's control, and rules adopted under section 609.105 
governing the inmates of those institutions; 
    (3) rules of the division of game and fish published in 
accordance with section 97A.051; 
    (4) rules relating to weight limitations on the use of 
highways when the substance of the rules is indicated to the 
public by means of signs; 
    (5) opinions of the attorney general; 
    (6) the systems architecture plan and long-range plan of 
the state education management information system provided by 
section 121.931; 
    (7) the data element dictionary and the annual data 
acquisition calendar of the department of education to the 
extent provided by section 121.932; or 
    (8) the occupational safety and health standards provided 
in section 182.655. 
    Sec. 4.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 14.131, is 
amended to read: 
    14.131 [STATEMENT OF NEED AND REASONABLENESS.] 
    Before the agency orders the publication of a rulemaking 
notice required by section 14.14, subdivision 1a, the agency 
must prepare, review, and make available for public review a 
statement of the need for and reasonableness of the rule and a 
fiscal note if required by section 3.982.  The statement of need 
and reasonableness must be prepared under rules adopted by the 
chief administrative law judge. 
    The agency shall send a copy of the statement of need and 
reasonableness to the legislative commission to review 
administrative rules when it becomes available for public review.
    Sec. 5.  [14.1311] [NOTICE TO COMMITTEES FOR FEES FIXED BY 
RULE.] 
    Before an agency submits a notice of hearing to the State 
Register on proposed rules that establish or adjust fees, the 
agency shall comply with section 16A.128, subdivision 2a. 
    Sec. 6.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 14.23, is amended 
to read: 
    14.23 [STATEMENT OF NEED AND REASONABLENESS.] 
    Before the date of the section 14.22 notice, the agency 
shall prepare a statement of need and reasonableness which shall 
be available to the public.  For at least 30 days following the 
notice, the agency shall afford all interested persons an 
opportunity to request a public hearing and to submit data and 
views on the proposed rule in writing. 
    The agency shall send a copy of the statement of need and 
reasonableness to the legislative commission to review 
administrative rules when it becomes available to the public. 
    Sec. 7.  [14.235] [NOTICE TO COMMITTEES FOR FEES FIXED BY 
RULE.] 
    Before an agency submits notice to the State Register of 
intent to adopt rules without a public hearing on proposed rules 
that establish or adjust fees, the agency shall comply with 
section 16A.128, subdivision 2a. 
    Sec. 8.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 14.25, is amended 
to read: 
    14.25 [PUBLIC HEARING REQUIRED.] 
    If, during the 30-day period allowed for comment, 25 or 
more persons submit to the agency a written request for a public 
hearing of the proposed rule, the agency shall proceed under the 
provisions of sections 14.14 to 14.20, and.  A notice of the 
public hearing shall must be published in the State Register and 
mailed to those persons who submitted a written request for the 
public hearing.  Unless the agency has modified the proposed 
rule, the notice need not include the text of the proposed rule 
but only a citation to the State Register pages where the text 
appears. 
    Sec. 9.  [14.305] [NOTICE TO COMMITTEES FOR FEES FIXED BY 
RULE.] 
    Before an agency submits notice to the State Register of 
intent to adopt emergency rules that establish or adjust fees, 
the agency shall comply with section 16A.128, subdivision 2a. 
    Sec. 10.  [REVISOR INSTRUCTION.] 
    The revisor shall change all references to "sections 14.01 
to 14.69" in Minnesota Statutes and Minnesota Rules to "sections 
14.001 to 14.69." 
    Presented to the governor April 5, 1990 
    Signed by the governor April 6, 1990, 11:45 a.m.