67-5220. NOTICE OF INTENT TO PROMULGATE RULES — NEGOTIATED RULEMAKING. (1) Prior to the adoption, amendment or repeal of a rule, an agency shall determine whether negotiated rulemaking is feasible. The agency’s determination of whether negotiated rulemaking is feasible is not subject to judicial review. If the agency determines that negotiated rulemaking is feasible, it shall publish in the bulletin a notice of intent to promulgate a rule. The notice shall contain a brief, nontechnical statement of the subject matter to be addressed in the proposed rulemaking, and shall include the purpose of the rule, the statutory authority for the rulemaking, citation to a specific federal statute or regulation if that is the basis of authority or requirement for the rulemaking, and the principal issues involved. The notice shall also state that interested persons have the opportunity to participate with the agency in negotiated rulemaking as provided in this section and shall identify an individual to whom comments on the proposal may be sent. If the agency determines that negotiated rulemaking is not feasible, it shall explain why negotiated rulemaking is not feasible in a notice of proposed rulemaking published pursuant to section 67-5221, Idaho Code, and shall proceed with rulemaking as provided pursuant to this chapter. Each agency that has a website shall cause the notice of intent to promulgate rules to be placed onto or accessible from the home page of the agency’s website.

(2) The notice of intent to promulgate a rule is intended to facilitate negotiated rulemaking, a process in which all interested persons and the agency seek consensus on the content of a rule. Agencies shall proceed through such informal rulemaking whenever it is feasible to do so in order to improve the substance of proposed rules by drawing upon shared information, knowledge, expertise and technical abilities possessed by interested persons and to expedite formal rulemaking.

(3) To facilitate the achievement of the purposes of this section, agencies shall, at a minimum:

(a) Provide a reasonable period of time for interested persons to respond to the notice of intent to promulgate rules;

(b) Provide notice of meetings to interested persons who responded to the notice of intent to promulgate rules;

(c) Upon request, make available to persons attending the meetings all information that is considered by the agency in connection with the formulation of the proposed rule and that is not exempt from disclosure pursuant to chapter 1, title 74, Idaho Code;

(d) Consider the recommendations of interested persons concerning the subject of the proposed rule;

(e) Establish, maintain and timely update the negotiated rulemaking schedule and a list of written comments and other documents and information pertinent to the proposed rule and make that information available to persons attending the negotiated rulemaking meeting;

(f) Prepare a written summary of unresolved issues, key information considered and conclusions reached during and as a result of the negotiated rulemaking and make that summary available to persons who attended the negotiated rulemaking meetings.

History:

[67-5220, added 1992, ch. 263, sec. 9, p. 793; am. 1994, ch. 271, sec. 1, p. 834; am. 2012, ch. 310, sec. 1, p. 856; am. 2015, ch. 141, sec. 175, p. 518.]