§29A-3-12. Submission of legislative rules to Legislature.

(a) No later than 40 days before the sixtieth day of each regular session of the Legislature, the cochairmen of the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee shall submit to the clerk of the respective houses of the Legislature copies of all proposed legislative rules which have been submitted to, and considered by, the committee pursuant to the provisions of §29A-3-11 of this code and which have not been previously submitted to the Legislature for study, together with the recommendations of the committee with respect to the rules, a statement of the reasons for any recommendation that a rule be amended or withdrawn, and a statement that a bill authorizing the legislative rule has been drafted by the staff of the committee or by Legislative Services pursuant to §29A-3-11 of this code. The cochairmen of the committee may also submit the rules at the direction of the committee at any time before or during a special session in which consideration of the rules may be appropriate. Beginning in 2019, the committee may withhold from its report any proposed legislative rule which was submitted to the committee after the last Friday in July and beginning in 2020, and every four years thereafter, by the last Friday in August. The clerk of each house shall submit the report to his or her house at the commencement of the next session.

All bills introduced authorizing the promulgation of a rule may be referred by the President of the Senate and by the Speaker of the House of Delegates to appropriate standing committees of the respective houses for further consideration or the matters may be otherwise dealt with as each house or its rules provide. The Legislature may, by act, authorize the agency to adopt a legislative rule incorporating the entire rule or may authorize the agency to adopt a rule with any amendments adopted by the Legislature. The clerk of the house originating the act shall immediately file a copy of any bill of authorization enacted with the Secretary of State and with the agency proposing the rule and the clerk of each house may prepare and file a synopsis of legislative action during any session on any proposed rule submitted to the house during the session for which authority to promulgate was not by law provided during the session. In acting upon the separate bills authorizing the promulgation of rules, the Legislature may, by amendment or substitution, combine the separate bills of authorization insofar as the various rules authorized in the amendment or substitution are proposed by agencies which are placed under the administration of one of the single, separate executive departments identified under the provisions of §5F-1-2 of this code or the Legislature may combine the separate bills of authorization by agency or agencies within an executive department. In the case of rules proposed for promulgation by an agency which is not administered by an executive department pursuant to the provisions of §5F-1-2 of this code, the separate bills of authorization for the proposed rules of that agency may, by amendment or substitution, be combined. These provisions relating to combining separate bills of authorization according to department or agency are not intended to restrict the permissible breadth of bills of authorization and do not preclude the Legislature from otherwise combining various bills of authorization which have a unity of subject matter. Any number of provisions may be included in a bill of authorization, but the single object of the bill shall be to authorize the promulgation of proposed legislative rules.

(b) If the Legislature during its regular session disapproves all or part of any legislative rule which was submitted to it by the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee during the session, an agency may not thereafter issue any rule or directive or take other action to implement the rule or part of the rule unless and until otherwise authorized to do so, except that the agency may resubmit the same or similar proposed rule to the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee in accordance with the provisions of §29A-3-11 of this code.

(c) Nothing shall be construed to prevent the Legislature by law from authorizing, or authorizing and directing, an agency to promulgate legislative rules not proposed by the agency or upon which some procedure specified in this chapter is not yet complete.

(d) Whenever the Legislature is convened by proclamation of the Governor, upon his or her own initiative or upon application of the members of the Legislature, or whenever a regular session of the Legislature is extended or convened by the vote or petition of its members, the Legislature may by act enacted during the extraordinary or extended session authorize, in whole or in part, any legislative rule, whether submitted to the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee or not, if legislative action on the rule during the session is a lawful order of business.

(e) As a part of any act that amends chapter 64 of this code, authorizing the promulgation of a proposed legislative rule or rules, the Legislature may also provide, by general language or with specificity, for the disapproval of rules not approved or acted upon by the Legislature.