§29A-3A-13. Submission of legislative rules to Legislature.
(a) No later than 40 days before the 60th day of each regular session of the Legislature, the co-chairs of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability 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 commission pursuant to §29A-3A-11 of this code and which have not been previously submitted to the Legislature for study, together with the recommendations of the commission with respect to the rules, a statement of the reasons for any recommendation that a rule be amended or withdrawn, and a statement that a bill authorizing the legislative rule has been drafted by the staff of the commission or by Legislative Services pursuant to §29A-3A-12 of this code. The co-chairs of the commission may also submit the rules at the direction of the commission at any time before or during a special session in which consideration thereof may be appropriate. The commission may withhold from its report any proposed legislative rule which was submitted to the commission after the last Friday in July of the previous calendar year: Provided, That in 2025 and every four years thereafter, the commission may withhold from its report any proposed legislative rule which was submitted to the commission after the last Friday in August of the previous calendar year. The clerk of each house shall submit the report to his or her house at the commencement of the next session.
(b) All bills introduced authorizing the promulgation of a rule may be referred by the Speaker of the House of Delegates and by the President of the Senate 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. 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 by the agency.
(c) If the Legislature during its regular session disapproves all or part of any legislative rule which was submitted to it by the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability during the session, the agency may not thereafter issue any rule or directive or take other action to implement the rule or part thereof unless and until otherwise authorized to do so, except that the agency may resubmit the same or similar proposed rule to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability in accordance with §29A-3A-12 of this code.
(d) Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the Legislature by law from authorizing, or authorizing and directing, the agency to promulgate legislative rules not proposed by the agency or upon which some procedure specified in this chapter is not yet complete.
(e) 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 Oversight Commission on Education Accountability or not, if legislative action on the rule during the session is a lawful order of business.
(f) As a part of any act that amends chapter 18B of this code, chapter 18C of this code, and §18-9D-1 et seq. 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.
