HD54 - Report of the Guidance Documents Subcommittee of the Administrative Law Advisory Committee


Executive Summary:
This report and its proposed legislation are in response to a request from the Virginia Code Commission. The request relates to proposed legislation designed to disclose documents of general applicability which are not "rules" or "regulations" under the Virginia Administrative Process Act (VAPA), (§ 9-6.14:1 et seq). Such documents are often important to understanding the agency's law but are not readily available. Indeed, their existence is often unknown to the public.

The subcommittee recommends legislation which would require agencies to publish in the Virginia Register of Regulations a list of such documents each year. Defined as "guidance documents" in a new term to be added to the VAPA, these documents contain agencies' interpretations of rules, regulations and statutes.