An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on State and Local Government To Make Necessary Changes to the Maine Administrative Procedure Act
Maine Legislature, Session 125, LD 1125
Committee: State and Local Government
Sponsors: BOLAND, THOMAS, BOLDUC, CASAVANT, COTTA, GRAHAM, HARVELL, KAENRATH, MOULTON, SULLIVAN
Amends: 5 MRSA §8054, 5 MRSA §8071-A, 5 MRSA §8072

Legislative Document 
No. 1125 
H.P. 837 
House of Representatives, March 15, 2011 
An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Joint Standing 
Committee on State and Local Government To Make Necessary 
Changes to the Maine Administrative Procedure Act 
Reference to the Committee on State and Local Government suggested and ordered printed. 
HEATHER J.R. PRIEST 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative BOLAND of Sanford. 
Cosponsored by Senator THOMAS of Somerset and 
Representatives: BOLDUC of Auburn, CASAVANT of Biddeford, COTTA of China, 
GRAHAM of North Yarmouth, HARVELL of Farmington, KAENRATH of South Portland, 
MOULTON of York, Senator: SULLIVAN of York. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  5 MRSA §8054, sub-§2, as amended by PL 2007, c. 581, §4, is further 
amended to read: 
2.  Agency findings. Any emergency rule must include, with specificity, the agency's 
findings with respect to the existence of an emergency, including any modifications of 
procedures, and such findings are subject to judicial review under section 8058.  Such 
findings must be included in any proposed or adopted emergency rule in a section labeled 
"findings."  No emergency may be found to exist when the primary cause of the 
emergency is delay caused by the agency involved. 
Sec. 2.  5 MRSA §8054, sub-§4 is enacted to read: 
4.  Fiscal impact; curtailment orders.  An emergency rule proposed or adopted in 
whole or in part to satisfy the requirements of a temporary curtailment order by the 
Governor under section 1668 must include a specification of the dollar amount of 
curtailed funds attributable to each change proposed or adopted in the rule. 
Sec. 3.  5 MRSA §8071-A is enacted to read: 
§8071-A.  Definitions 
As used in this subchapter, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following 
terms have the following meanings. 
1.  Legislative review session.  "Legislative review session" means the regular 
session of the Legislature convening after the beginning of the legislative rule acceptance 
period. 
2.  Legislative rule acceptance period.  "Legislative rule acceptance period" means 
the period beginning on the July 1st preceding the convening of a regular session of the 
Legislature and ending at 5:00 p.m. on the 2nd Friday in January after the convening of 
that regular session of the Legislature. 
Sec. 4.  5 MRSA §8072, sub-§3, as amended by PL 1995, c. 574, §2, is further 
amended to read: 
3.  Legislative review; legislative instrument prepared.  Upon receipt of If the 
required copies of the provisionally adopted rule and related information, are received by 
the Executive Director of the Legislative Council during the legislative rule acceptance 
period, the Executive Director shall immediately forward the materials to notify the 
Revisor of Statutes, who shall draft an appropriate legislative instrument to allow for 
legislative review and action upon the provisionally adopted rule during the legislative 
review session.  The Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House for placement 
shall place the legislative instrument on the Advance Journal and Calendar and 
distribution to a committee as provided in this subsection.  The secretary and clerk shall 
jointly suggest reference of the legislative instrument to a joint standing committee of the 
Legislature that has jurisdiction over the subject matter of the proposed rule and shall 
provide for publication of that suggestion in the Advance Journal and Calendar first in the 
Senate and then in the House of Representatives no later than the next legislative day 
following receipt of the legislative instrument.  After floor action on referral of the rule 
legislative instrument to committee is completed, the Secretary of the Senate and the 
Clerk of the House of Representatives shall send copies of the rule and related 
information to each member of that committee.  Each rule submitted for legislative 
review during the legislative rule acceptance period must be reviewed by the appropriate 
joint standing committee at a meeting called for that purpose in accordance with 
legislative rules.  A committee may review more than one rule and the rules of more than 
one agency at a meeting.  The committee shall notify the affected agency of the meeting 
on its proposed rules. 
Sec. 5.  5 MRSA §8072, sub-§5, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 463, §2, is amended to 
read: 
5.  Committee recommendation.  After reviewing the a rule referred to it by the 
Legislature, the committee shall recommend: 
A.  That the Legislature authorize the final adoption of the rule; 
B.  That the Legislature authorize the final adoption of a specified part of the rule; 
C.  That the Legislature authorize the final adoption of the rule with certain specified 
amendments; or 
D.  That the final adoption of the rule be disapproved by the Legislature. 
The committee shall notify the agency proposing the rule of its recommendation.  When 
the committee makes a recommendation under paragraph B, C or D, the notice must 
contain a statement of the reasons for that recommendation. 
Sec. 6.  5 MRSA §8072, sub-§6, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 463, §2, is repealed. 
Sec. 7.  5 MRSA §8072, sub-§7, as amended by PL 2005, c. 586, §1, is further 
amended to read: 
7.  Report to the Legislature.  No Unless otherwise provided by the Legislature, 
each joint standing committee of the Legislature that receives a rule submitted during the 
legislative rule acceptance period shall report to the Legislature its recommendations 
concerning final adoption of the rule no later than 30 days before statutory adjournment 
of the Legislature legislative review session as provided in Title 3, section 2 each joint 
standing committee of the Legislature shall submit to the Secretary of the Senate and the 
Clerk of the House of Representatives the committee's report on agency rules the 
committee has reviewed as provided in this section.  The report must include a copy of 
the rule or rules reviewed, the committee's recommendation concerning final adoption of 
the rule or rules, a statement of the reasons for a recommendation to withdraw or modify 
the rule or rules and draft legislation for introduction in that session that is necessary to 
implement the committee's recommendation.  A committee may decline to include in its 
report recommendations covering any rules submitted to it later than 5:00 p.m. on the 2nd 
Friday in January of the year in which the rules are to be considered by the committee.  If, 
before adjournment of the session at which a rule is reviewed, the Legislature fails to act 
on all or part of any rule submitted to it for review in accordance with this section, an 
agency may proceed with final adoption and implementation of the rule or part of the rule 
that was not acted on. 
Sec. 8.  5 MRSA §8072, sub-§8, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 463, §2, is amended to 
read: 
8.  Final adoption; effective date.  Unless otherwise provided by law, final adoption 
of a rule or part of a rule by an agency must occur within 60 days of the effective date of 
the legislation approving that rule or part of that rule or of the adjournment of the session 
at which that rule is reviewed if no legislation is enacted in which the Legislature failed to 
act on the rule or part of the rule as specified in subsection 11.  Finally adopted rules must 
be filed with the Secretary of State as provided in section 8056, subsection 1, paragraph B 
and notice must be published as provided in section 8056, subsection 1, paragraph D.  An 
agency rule authorized by the Legislature becomes Except as otherwise specified by law, 
the rules become effective 30 days after filing with the Secretary of State or at a later date 
specified by the agency. 
Sec. 9.  5 MRSA §8072, sub-§10 is enacted to read: 
10.  Rules submitted outside legislative rule acceptance period.  The Legislature 
may act or decline to act upon any rules submitted outside the legislative rule acceptance 
period. 
Sec. 10.  5 MRSA §8072, sub-§11 is enacted to read: 
11.  Prohibited final adoption.  A provisionally adopted rule or part of a 
provisionally adopted rule may not be finally adopted by an agency unless: 
A.  Legislation authorizing adoption of the rule or part of the rule is enacted into law; 
or  
B.  The agency submits the rule or part of the rule in accordance with this section 
during the legislative rule acceptance period and the Legislature fails to act on the 
rule or part of the rule. 
For purposes of this subsection, the Legislature fails to act on a rule or part of a rule if the 
Legislature fails to enact legislation authorizing adoption or disapproving adoption of the 
rule or part of the rule during the legislative review session or during any subsequent 
session to which a legislative instrument expressly providing for approval or disapproval 
of the rule or part of the rule is carried over.  Nothing in this section requires the 
Legislature to use the legislative instrument produced pursuant to subsection 3 to approve 
or disapprove of a rule or part of a rule. 
SUMMARY 
This bill implements the statutory recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee 
on State and Local Government resulting from its study of the Maine Administrative 
Procedure Act pursuant to Resolve 2009, chapter 207. 
This bill clarifies that a provisionally adopted major substantive rule submitted for 
legislative review after the statutory deadline for submission may not be finally adopted 
unless legislation authorizing its adoption is enacted into law or the agency follows the 
procedure under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 5, section 8072 as amended in this bill 
and the Legislature fails to act.  This bill also specifies that an emergency rule must 
include the agency's findings with respect to the existence of an emergency in a section 
labeled "findings" and that emergency rules proposed or adopted in whole or in part to 
satisfy the requirements of a temporary curtailment order must include a specification in 
the rule of the dollar amount of curtailed funds attributable to each change adopted in the 
rule.