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Committee approves process for agencies to expunge certain administrative adjudication records
Summary
The House committee on April 29 adopted a substitute and reported House Bill 406 favorably; the measure would establish a procedure through which individuals can seek expungement of certain administrative adjudication records when later determinations show the underlying action or rule was invalid.
The House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs on April 29 adopted a substitute and reported House Bill 406 favorably. The bill creates a statutory process for an individual to request expungement of agency adjudication records — for example, a consent judgment or complaint — when a subsequent authoritative determination shows the original action rested on an invalid rule or interpretation.
Representative Ventrella, who carried the measure, said the change grew out of instances in which professionals received administrative disciplinary notations based on agency rules or interpretations later determined to be incorrect. Committee staff explained the substitute (draft substitute for HB 406, amendment 1854 online) preserves the original grounds for expungement and adds procedural steps for requesting expungement and for agency compliance when an expungement is granted. The substitute also added a public‑records exception: once documents are expunged under the new process they would be withheld from public records disclosures to the extent described in the bill.
Committee members asked how many times a person could seek expungement; witnesses said requests should be limited to the distinct adjudicative instances involved and that the statute was intended as a corrective for discrete cases where the original rule or interpretation was later found invalid. Members also asked whether the attorney general’s official opinions would be a sufficient basis for a request; testimony said an official AG opinion or a court determination would be used as evidence in a petition and that the expungement procedure would rely on authoritative determinations rather than informal emails.
Representative Ventrella closed by asking for favorable passage; committee members adopted the substitute and then, with no objection, reported the bill favorably.
The substitute includes sections establishing the request form and agency duties after expungement; the committee record does not show an appropriation. The bill was reported favorably by voice action and proceeds to the next House stage.
