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Senate clears bill to move criminal penalties from agency rule into statute, senators seek clarifications
Summary
The Senate adopted House Bill 32 to remove agencies’ ability to establish criminal penalties in rule and put criminal penalties in statute. Senators questioned practical effects — including whether small, informal collections on state lands would be allowed under a House amendment permitting limited rock collection — and sponsors promised clarifying answers before final passage.
House Bill 32, a measure sponsored in the Senate by Senator Stevenson, passed its committee and the Senate moved it toward final consideration after extended questioning about the practical effects of moving criminal penalties from rule into statute.
Senator Stevenson told the Senate: “The bill essentially repeals that criminal penalty possibility on the part of agencies and ensures that only the legislature can create criminal penalties.” He said the bill would make violations of agency rules infractions while violations of state statutes would be Class B misdemeanors, and that the change restores transparency and legislative control over criminal sanctions (SEG 390–399; SEG 593–596).
A portion of the bill’s House amendment drew specific concern: language on Lines 125–129 permits a person to collect up to 250 pounds per calendar year of common rock or gravel on certain division lands for noncommercial use. Senator Greiner and others asked whether that would allow people to remove small, informal memorials or projects scouts erect on state land. Senator Stevenson and sponsors agreed to seek clarifying information from the relevant division before third reading and, if necessary, to tighten the language (SEG 463–471; SEG 519–522; SEG 576–583).
Senators also asked whether the bill’s changes include wildlife parts and antlers seen by scout groups on hikes; sponsors said they would obtain answers from the division to ensure the language did not unintentionally criminalize common noncommercial activities (SEG 528–557). Senator Stevenson argued this example illustrated why criminal penalties belong in statute rather than rule: “this really illustrates why this criminal penalty never should have been allowed to be in rule… Now it is transparent and we start asking these questions.”
The Senate recorded the bill’s passage by voice and roll call and placed it on the third-reading calendar (SEG 614–616). The sponsor pledged to bring clarifying responses on the specific contested lines at final consideration.
