The five-year review process required by the rulemaking act is intended as a way to ensure that only current rules appear in the administrative code. Each agency is required to review each of its rules at least once every five years. The agency has the option of reviewing rules on a more frequent basis. More frequent reviews make sense for rules that receive a good deal of public comment, or for rules that are almost entirely rewritten.
A five-year review is different from a proposed rule in a number of ways.
- A five-year review is a statement by the agency justifying the continued necessity of the rule.
- There is no public comment period associated with a five-year review. Five-year reviews are considered effective on the date they are received by the Division.
- The statute expects an agency to summarize (not repeat verbatim) written comments received since the rules’ first effective date, or its last five-year review, whichever is more recent.
- A five-year review does not change rule text. The Division asks agencies to provide a copy of the current rule text as a method of verifying that the Division’s text and the agency’s text match.
The statute requires the Division to provide agencies with 180 days advanced notice of administrative rules due for review. In practice, the Division sends agencies quarterly notices of rules due for review, so in some instances agencies will receive much more than 180-days notice.
Please refer questions about five-year reviews to Ken Hansen at 801-538-3777.