HCS/SS/SB 3 - This act extends the review power of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules so that it may suspend an agency rule that is arbitrary and capricious. In addition, an agency must file an emergency rule with the Committee. If the Committee disapproves an emergency rule, it shall report such findings to the Senate and House of Representatives. An emergency rule shall remain in effect for up to one-hundred and eighty, rather than one-hundred and twenty, days. Rules promulgated by the Public Service Commission and the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission shall be exempt from review by the Committee. The provision exempting the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission from rules review conflicts with SCS/HCS/HBs 300 & 95 which allows for review.

A professional board may enter into a consent agreement with an individual from that profession concerning suspension or revocation of his license if he is a licensee of a board or agency described in section 621.045, RSMo and if certain safeguards are met. These include: 1) providing the individual with notice of the allegations at least thirty days before offering an agreement; 2) allowing the individual at least sixty days, from the date of mailing the offer, to consider and discuss the board's offer if no contested case has been filed; 3) advising the licensee that he may submit the agreement to the Administrative Hearing Commission for review; 4) advising the individual that he may consult an attorney. The individual may opt out of any consent agreement within fifteen days after he enters into the agreement. This will render such agreement ineffective unless the Administrative Hearing Commission finds that the facts underlying the settlement constitute grounds for the suspension of the individual's license. For a matter settled prior to the effective date of this act, any party other than a state agency may file an action in the Circuit Court of Cole County within six months to contest such agreement. The consent agreement provisions are taken from SB 205.

This act changes various discovery provisions in contested administrative cases. First, an administrative agency will provide the agency's discovery rules to either party in a contested case upon request. Second, agencies will have the same rulemaking power over discovery that circuit courts have, with certain exceptions. Third, a party bringing sanctions against another for violating discovery procedures will not have to show due diligence in resolving the dispute informally. The new version of the rules review language applies to the Administrative Hearing Commission.

In 1993, the General Assembly enacted SB 52 which placed rule review authority for the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules in about 250 different places in the statutes. This act repeals that language from about 250 different places in the statutes, leaving the language in Chapter 536 RSMo (administrative procedures). Discovery in workers' compensation cases is exempt from these rules provisions and from review by the Administrative Hearing Commission.

See SB 205 and HB 405.
JAMES KLAHR