Rules coordinator explains temporary vs. pending rules, effective-date gap to Senate panel

A bureau chief who said she is three weeks on the job told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that temporary rules and pending rules may both appear in this year's rule books because many temporary rules remain in effect through sine die until pending rules become final and take effect on July 1, 2025.

"When temporary rules are promulgated and adopted by an agency, they normally become effective immediately," Lauren Smizer told the committee. Smizer identified herself as the bureau chief in charge of rules support at the Division of Financial Management and said her team compiled the rule review books the committee is using.

Smizer outlined the five-step rulemaking process she said agencies follow: initial notice/negotiated rulemaking; a proposed-rule draft and at least 21 days for comment; publication of a pending rule; legislative review (the committee's current step); and, if approved, final rules that become effective on July 1 under current practice. She cited the Idaho Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act as the legal framework for legislative review.

She told senators why both temporary and pending rule books appear this year: temporary rules can be adopted to take immediate effect, while corresponding pending rules that already have gone through the rulemaking process are scheduled to become final and effective July 1, 2025. "Most of those temporary rules will have a corresponding pending rule," she said.

Smizer also noted the resources available to legislators and the public: the statutory citation is included in each notice of rulemaking, fee and fiscal-impact summaries appear when applicable, and Town Hall Idaho can be used to view executive-agency meetings and rulemaking outreach. She said agencies are required to identify the statute that grants them rulemaking authority and to include contact information in notices.

Committee members asked clarifying questions about the temporary-rule gap and whether staff would be available when the committee begins rules review the next day; Smizer and her staff said they would be present to assist. She said the governor's zero-based regulation and a legislatively codified periodic-review system will continue the state's rule-review work on an eight-year basis.

Ending: Smizer left committee members with contact information in the slide deck and the offer that her office would help senators and staff access rulebooks or answer procedural questions during the committee's rule-review session.