What is the regulatory process?

The process of rule-making can lead to a new regulation, an amendment to an existing regulation, or the repeal of an existing regulation. Although the actual process will vary from state to state (including on the federal level), rule-making will generally take the following format:

• An agency provides some sort of notice to the public of a rule-making action.

- These notices are generally published in a register publication, or on a centralized, repository website, although there are some states that only provide notices on individual agency websites, or even just the newspaper.

- Typically the rule-making process will start at the proposal, or notice of proposal phase, although this is not always the case!

• A proposed rule will be published.
• There will be a certain period of time allowed to allow for comments from the public. An agency may or may not have a public hearing on the proposed action.
• Sometimes an agency will change their initial proposal after considering comments made by the public. A proposed rule change may or may not be made available to the public. A subsequent public comment period might be opened.
• Adoption and publication of the final rule.

 Although the rule-making process tends to more or less follow the steps outlined above, it doesn’t always. There are certain instances where an agency might just adopt a rule (or a rule change) without any prior notice of proposal and without requesting comments from the public.