2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 14 - Records, Rules, Legal Notices, Oaths › Article 4 - State Rules › Section 14-4-3 - Format of rules; filing; distribution.

A. Each agency promulgating any rule shall place the rule in the format and style required by rule of the state records administrator and shall deliver the rule to the state records administrator or the administrator's designee, accompanied by the concise explanatory statement required by the State Rules Act. The state records administrator or the administrator's designee shall note thereon the date and hour of filing.
B. The state records administrator or the administrator's designee shall maintain a copy of the rule as a permanent record open to public inspection during office hours, on the website of the records center, published in a timely manner in the New Mexico register and compiled into the New Mexico Administrative Code.
C. At the time of filing, an agency may submit to the state records administrator or the administrator's designee a copy, for annotation with the date and hour of filing, to be returned to the agency.
D. The state records administrator, after written notification to the filing agency, may make minor, nonsubstantive corrections in spelling, grammar and format in filed rules. The state records administrator shall make a record of the correction and shall deliver the record to the filing agency and issuing authority within ten days of the change. Within thirty days of receiving that state records administrator's record of a correction, the agency shall provide to the public notice of the correction in the same manner as the agency used to give notice of the rulemaking proceeding pursuant to Section 4 of this 2017 act [14-4-5.2 NMSA 1978].
History:
1953 Comp., § 71-7-3, enacted by Laws 1967, ch. 275, § 3; 1969, ch. 92, § 2; 1987, ch. 40, § 1; 1995, ch. 110, § 2; 2017, ch. 137, § 2.
ANNOTATIONS
Cross references.
— For records of state agencies and databases under Public Records Act,
see
14-3-15.1 NMSA 1978.
For electronic authentication and substitution for signature,
see
14-3-15.2 NMSA 1978.
The 2017 amendment,
effective July 1, 2017, replaced the "records center" with the "state records administrator" for purposes of receiving promulgated rules, revised the requirements for submitting a rule to the state records administrator, allowed the state records administrator to make minor, non-substantive corrections to submitted rules, and required the agency to give public notice of minor non-substantive corrections made by the state records administrator in the same manner as required for rulemaking; ; added new subsection designation "A."; in Subsection A, after "required by rule of the", deleted "records center" and added "state records administrator", after "shall deliver", deleted "one original paper copy and one electronic copy" and added "the rule", after "to the", deleted "records center" and added "state records administrator or the administrator's designee, accompanied by the concise explanatory statement required by the State Rules Act"; added subsection designation "B."; in Subsection B, after "shall maintain", deleted "the original" and added "a", after "copy", added "of the rule", after "office hours,", deleted "and shall have the rule" and added "on the website of the records center"; added subsection designation "C."; in Subsection C, after "may submit to the", deleted "records center an additional paper" and added "state records administrator or the administrator's designee a"; and added Subsection D.
The 1995 amendment,
effective July 1, 1995, substituted "deliver one original paper copy and one electronic copy" for "cause seven copies to be delivered" in the first sentence; substituted "maintain the original copy" for "a list of places to file copies" in the third sentence; added the language at the end of the section beginning "and shall have"; and made minor stylistic changes throughout the section.
Records center may require certificate of compliance.
— Pursuant to its authority under this section to adopt a rule governing the style and format of the rules and regulations to be filed, the records center may require a certificate of compliance as a matter of style or format. While the records center has no authority to look behind a certificate of compliance or to make any determination of actual compliance, failure to incorporate such a certificate of compliance on rules and regulations submitted for filing would constitute a failure to comply with the required style and format. 1978 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 78-07.
Orders and decisions excluded by definition from class of rules
to which this article and 13-3-24 and 13-3-25 NMSA 1978 apply are not subject to the provisions of those sections and, in particular, are not governed by this section and 14-4-5 NMSA 1978. 1979 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 79-32.
State records administrator does not have the authority to conduct investigations into the compliance of state agencies with respect to their adherence to the requirements of the State Rules Act.
— New Mexico courts have consistently held that administrative bodies are creatures of statute and can act only on those matters which are within the scope of authority delegated to them. The State Rules Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 14-4-1 to -11, does not provide the state records administrator the authority to independently investigate the actions of state agencies with respect to their adherence to the notice and hearing requirements of the State Rules Act.
Authority of Commission of Public Records and SRCA
(11/18/21), Att'y Gen. Adv. Ltr. 2021-13.
Law reviews.
— For article, "How to Stand Still Without Really Trying: A Critique of the New Mexico Administrative Procedures Act," see 10 Nat. Resources J. 840 (1970).
For note, "On Building Better Laws for New Mexico's Environment," see 4 N.M. L. Rev. 105 (1973).