Bill Description: Senate Bill 1076 would limit agencies’ use of temporary rules and would implement sunset provisions for some administrative rules on a staggered, 8-year cycle.

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NOTE: The Senate Amendment to Senate Bill 1076 makes a number of changes to the bill that weaken its overall impact and provide more pretexts for using temporary rules. The analysis has been updated but the rating has not changed.

NOTE: The House Amendment to Senate Bill 1076 (the second amendment to the bill) adds a more limited version of the staggered, 8-year sunset cycle for administrative rules found in House Bill 217 (2025). The analysis has been updated but the rating has not changed.

Does it in any way restrict public access to information related to government activity or otherwise compromise government transparency, accountability, or election integrity? Conversely, does it increase public access to information related to government activity or increase government transparency, accountability, or election integrity?

Senate Bill 1076 would amend Section 67-5226, Idaho Code, to say that agencies should use temporary rules "only in emergency or other limited situations where negotiated rulemaking is not feasible." 

Current law says "protection of the public health, safety, or welfare" is sufficient justification for a temporary rule. This bill would narrow the scope of this provision to require "an imminent threat to the public health, safety, or welfare from a specified danger that was unknown to the agency prior to or during the most recent session of the legislature or from the measurable worsening of such threat or danger." It would allow a temporary rule for the "protection of citizens' rights" or "a natural disaster."

The bill would require the governor to publish a statement explaining why a temporary rule is being implemented and how it complies with the requirements of this law. 

The bill says, "If a temporary rule expires by its own terms or by operation of law, the promulgating agency may not adopt the same rule or a substantially similar rule as a temporary rule again." But then it goes on to provide for a variety of exceptions including when the "governor finds it is necessary" for the reasons discussed above, or he "declares a disaster emergency pursuant to state law." Another exception is if 90 days "have elapsed since the expiration of the previous temporary rule and a basis for a new temporary rule is present." This exception is overly broad.

These changes could reduce the use of temporary rules and should provide greater transparency when they are implemented.

The bill would (thanks to the House Amendment) also amend Section 67-5292, Idaho Code, which calls for the Legislature to periodically review administrative rules, to implement sunset provisions for some administrative rules on a staggered, 8-year cycle. 

It would require agencies that wish to re-promulgate sunsetting rules to "prepare a statement for the legislature that states whether the substantive content in the rule chapter is still necessary and, if so, the rationale for such determination and any evidence to justify its benefits relative to its costs."

Additionally, the agency will be required to consider "the expected cost to the agency to monitor and enforce the substance of the rule."

These requirements should provide an opportunity for additional transparency and legislative oversight, although the extent to which the agencies or the Legislature would take advantage of that opportunity is unknown. 

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