An agency must provide notice and make documents available to the public and to the legislature at various points in a rulemaking process.   Under current law, many of the notices and publications must be made by publishing in the State Register and, in some instances, mailing notice (either by post or e-mail) to those who have registered with the agency to receive notice of rulemaking.  A few of the key notices that current law requires be published in the State Register are as follows:

• Notice that a proposed rule has been withdrawn, under section 14.05, subd. 3
• Notice that a rule has been vetoed by the Governor, under section 14.05, subd. 6
• Notice of a hearing on a petition by a city, county or sanitary district to amend or repeal a rule, under section 14.091
• Notice of intent to adopt rules, prior to a hearing about a proposed rule adoption, under section 14.14.  (This notice must also be mailed to registered people.)
• Notice of adoption of a rule, under section 14.18.  (A rule becomes effective five days after this notice is published in the State Register.)
• Notice of intent to adopt rules without a hearing, under section 14.22. (This notice must also be mailed to registered people.)
• Notice of a hearing, if enough people have requested a hearing, on a rule that otherwise would have been adopted without a hearing, under section 14.25.  (This notice must also be mailed to registered people.)
• Notice of adoption of a rule, under section 14.27
• Notice of proposal to adopt a rule under the expedited process, under section 14.389, subd. 2
• Notice of adoption of a rule after an expedited process, section 14.389, subd. 3

Section 1 [Electronic notices and documents permitted] permits agencies to send these notices and make documents available “using any reliable method of electronic transmission”  instead of publishing them in the State Register or other currently specified manner. Sections 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, and 15 are conforming changes to implement section 1.

Sections 3, 7, 11, 12, and 13 require the chief administrative law judge to file paper or electronic copies of an adopted rule with the Secretary of State who must forward copies of the rules to the agency, the revisor of statutes, and to the Governor.