BILL NUMBER:S4820

TITLE OF BILL:

An act
to amend the executive law, in relation to materials incorporated by
reference into regulations

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This bill would reduce state expenditures by reducing the number of
copies of documents incorporated into rules that must be filed with
judicial libraries, and exempting agencies from filing copies of such
materials that are publicly available without charge on the Internet.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Bill §1 amends §102(4)(c) of the Executive Law to exclude certain
material incorporated by reference into agency rules from
requirements for filing with official libraries. Specifically, an
agency would not have to file printed copies of such materials with
the Legislative Library and court law libraries, provided that such
material is readily available without charge on the Internet. The agency
need only identify the address at which such materials can be
accessed. (The statute already requires that the text of the rule
must include a precise identification of the incorporated materials.)
              

Bill §1 also reduces the number of copies of incorporated materials
that must be filed with judicial libraries from 13 (1 in each
judicial district) to 4 (1 in each judicial department).

EFFECTS OF PRESENT LAW WHICH THIS BILL WOULD ALTER:

Currently, only Federal statutes and regulations are exempt from the
requirement to file incorporated materials in libraries in §102, and
the current law requires agencies to provide a copy of such materials
to one court library in each of the 13 judicial districts.

JUSTIFICATION:

Executive Law §102 sets forth a process for state agencies to
incorporate previously-published materials into the text of their
rules. This process can be useful when the agency needs to ensure
that its rules are identical to regulations of other jurisdictions
(e.g., Federal OSHA rules, California auto emission standards) or when
it is desirable to adopt national or international standards (e.g.,
National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Underwriters
Laboratories).

The statute requires dissemination of the incorporated materials to a
number of official repositories, including the Legislative Library
and to one court law library in each of the State's judicial
districts. When the law was enacted, Federal documents were exempted
from this filing requirement as they were already on file in these
locations. Since then, the Internet has emerged as a primary source
for access to information. This bill reflects the widespread


electronic availability of information by excluding incorporated
materials that are available without charge online from the filing
requirement.

The requirement for library dissemination of incorporated materials
was added to §102 in recognition of the provisions of Article IV, §8
of the State Constitution, requiring that the Legislature shall
provide for the "speedy publication" of all adopted rules and
regulations.
This charge necessitates that the text of incorporated materials must
be available to some degree to legal practitioners and members of the
general public. However, historical usage patterns and the ease of
transmitting digitized information suggest that the number of
judicial filings can be reduced without impairing public access. As a
result, state agencies can avoid spending tens of thousands of
taxpayer dollars each year by reducing the number of required filings
with court libraries by over 2/3.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

State agencies will no longer need to obtain and disseminate multiple
copies of publicly-available incorporated materials, and will be able
to substantially reduce the number of copyrighted materials they must
purchase. It has been estimated that incorporated documents cost on
average $50-$75 and that anywhere from 20 to over 50 of such
documents are incorporated or updated each year. Depending on the
actual number of filings avoided, this bill could result in agency
savings ranging from $9,000 to over $30,000 a year without impacting
on the availability of information.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

Immediately.