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Committee weighs bill letting agencies dismiss out-of-jurisdiction rulemaking petitions
Summary
Supporters described House Bill 33 as a customer-service change allowing agencies to summarily dismiss portions of citizen rulemaking petitions outside their legislatively granted jurisdiction; opponents warned it would allow agencies to avoid creating a written, evidentiary record and reduce accountability absent an internal appeal process.
The Montana State Administration Committee heard testimony on House Bill 33, a bill that would let executive-branch agencies summarily dismiss portions of citizen or legislator-submitted rulemaking petitions that fall outside an agency’s statutory rulemaking authority.
Representative Neil Durham, sponsor of the bill, described the measure as focused on Title 2 of the Montana Code (the Administrative Procedure Act) and said the bill was intended to allow agencies to “summarily dismiss any portion of a petition that is raised that's outside of the agency's regular regulatory jurisdiction.” He also read a House amendment requiring written decisions in summary dismissals to include contact information for any agency or body that potentially…
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