Importance of Local Action to Guide Implementation of New Interlock Laws

1. Importance of Local Action to Guide Implementation of New Interlock Laws 7th Annual International Ignition Interlock Symposium Vail, Colorado by Toby Taylor Guardian Interlock Network, Inc. – Oklahoma City, OK Kansas and Oklahoma Ignition Interlock Associations

2. Legislative Success • Individuals at the local level engage the political process. • Vast amounts of time and resources are dedicated to identifying a need, crafting language, persuading numerous committees and lobbying multiple legislators to secure their vote. • The end result is a successful piece of legislation that should increase the number of individuals who have an interlock experience.

3. Floodgates • The Floodgates open as the state is bombarded with manufacturers seeking approval of their devices. • Vendors open new locations, conduct training seminars and brace for the impending onset of business.

4. Revelation • The effective date of the legislation arrives and the phones are quiet. One then two weeks pass and the phones are still quiet. • A concerned vendor calls to inquire and discovers the importance or rulemaking and the weight of rules. • A single sentence buried deep in the legislation required an agency to “promulgate rules necessary to implement and administer this section.”

5. Reality • The agency tasked with this responsibility promulgated rules stating the new law only applied to people arrested on or after the effective date of the legislation and only after serving a one-year revocation period. • Additionally, any person willing to sign an affidavit stating they were not going to drive would not be required to have an interlock device installed.

6. The Definition of Rulemaking • The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 states: “rule means the whole or part of an agency statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy.”

7. Interpretation • Rules are products of government departments or institutions.

8. Interpretation continued • They articulate law and policy limited only by authorizing legislation. • While the authority to issue rules is only derived from the authorizing legislation, rules cover a large range of topics and are virtually limitless. They can, however, be broken down into three categories:

9. Interpretation continued • Implement – Rules merely implement when law or policy has been fully developed in the statute. • Interpret – Rules interpret when law or policy are well established but confront unanticipated or changing circumstances. Statutory terms clear and precise when written may require adaptation when new business practices or technologies appear. • Prescribe – Rules prescribe when the legislature establishes goals of law or policy in statutes but provides few details as to how they are to be put into operation or how they are actually to be achieved.

10. Interpretation continued • May be broad or narrow in scope but are always concerned with shaping future conditions. • Rules, like legislation, attempt to structure the future by creating new conditions, eliminating existing ones, or preventing others from coming into being. Rules implement legislation that seeks to improve the quality of life. • This is a crucial element in the definition because it allows a clear contrast to situations in which agencies issue decisions primarily concerned with the legal implications of current or past events and conditions.

11. The Process of Rulemaking • Rulemaking is a highly developed process, subject to a complex web of legal and technical requirements. • The technical, administrative, and political dimensions of each rulemaking are determined almost entirely by the topic and scope of the rule to be written. • The process of rulemaking has seven elements:

12. Drafting Proposed Rules • Agency determines need for new rules and/or revisions to existing rules and drafts proposed rules. • Drafting is conducted as an internal function and is not open to public input or scrutiny.

13. Notification To Public • Agency publishes a Notice of Rulemaking Intent (NRI) which, among other things: • summarizes proposed rules, and identifies need, intended effect, and legal authority. • announces a 30-day comment period. • announces a public hearing date or how and where persons can demand a hearing. • If proposed rules will affect business entities, requests input from business entities regarding impact of proposed rules.

14. Public Input • Agency conducts comment period, as announced in NRI. • Agency holds public hearing, if announced in NRI --- OR, if hearing was not announced in NRI and hearing is demanded by qualifying party or parties.

15. Adoption • Agency considers public comments, determines if changes to proposed rules are needed as result of public comments, and adopts rules.

16. Review of Proposed Rules • Agency files adopted rules with the Governor and Legislature within 10 calendar days after adoption. • Office of Administrative Rules reviews for formatting and technical errors. • Governor approval or disapproval within 45 calendar days. • Legislative “active” or “inactive” approval.

17. Final Adoption • Rules are considered “finally adopted” upon approval by both the Governor and the Legislature, OR upon active approval by a joint resolution passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.

18. Promulgation and Effectiveness • Within 30 calendar days after rules become finally adopted, OAR reviews, accepts, and publishes in Register. Rules are considered “promulgated” upon publication. • Rules are effective on date stated by agency, but no earlier that 10 calendar days after publication.

19. What Can I Do? • Don’t assume you have completed your legislative initiative because your legislation has passed and been signed by the Governor. • Identify the agency and person(s) responsible for promulgating the rules necessary to implement the new law. • Contact the aforementioned and offer your expertise. Specifically request to receive a copy of the proposed rules and ask to be added to the notification list.

20. What Can I Do?….continued • Attend any and all public hearings to offer your expertise. • Understand the review process and, if necessary, contact your legislative authors and supporters to advise of the changes made to the legislation.

21. Resources • Cornelius M. Kerwin, Rulemaking: how government agencies write law and make policy (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1999) • www.google.com - search for “(your state) administrative rules”