Section 30 Regulatory Modernization 8

Chapter 30A of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out sections 6 through 6B, inclusive, and inserting in place thereof the following 3 sections:-

Section 6. Documents required or authorized to be published by this section shall be published by the state secretary in a publication entitled the "Massachusetts Register". The Massachusetts Register shall be published on the website of the office of the state secretary where it shall be available to the public at no cost. The state secretary may also contract and arrange, subject to all pertinent statutes, for the biweekly printing and distribution of the Massachusetts Register. The prices to be charged for the printed version of the Massachusetts Register may be set without reference to the statutory charges for public documents fixed by chapter 262.

There shall be published in the Massachusetts Register the following documents: (1) executive orders, except those not having general applicability and legal effect or effective only against state agencies or persons in their capacity as officers, agents or employees thereof; (2) all regulations filed in accordance with section 5; (3) all notices filed in accordance with sections 2 and 3, except that the secretary may summarize the content of any notice filed; provided, however, that the state secretary indicate that the full text of the notice may be inspected and copied in the office of the state secretary during business hours; and (4) any other item or portion thereof which the state secretary deems to be of sufficient public interest.

The Massachusetts Register shall begin with a table of contents listing the documents contained therein which shall include a brief summary for each document identifying the purpose of any proposed regulations and whether small business is likely to be substantially affected by said regulations.

Each biweekly issue shall contain all documents required or authorized to be published, filed with the state secretary up to the day fixed by the secretary as the deadline for that issue.

Regulations other than emergency regulations, which are adopted under sections 2 or 3, shall become effective only when published online in accordance with this section, or, in the case of any regulation as to which a later effective date is required by any law, or is specified in such regulation by the agency adopting the same, upon such later date or upon such publication, whichever last occurs. Emergency regulations shall become effective when filed with the state secretary, or at such later time as may be required by law or be specified therein, and shall remain in effect no longer than 3 months following filing except as provided in sections 2 and 3.

The state secretary shall make available upon request of any person or group the biweekly issues of the Massachusetts Register and shall transmit, without charge, a copy of each issue thereof to (1) the clerk of the house of representatives; (2) the clerk of the senate; (3) the house counsel and senate counsel; and (4) the state librarian; provided, however, that providing electronic access to the Massachusetts Register shall satisfy these requirements.

The online publication in the Massachusetts Register of a document creates a rebuttable presumption (1) that it was duly issued, prescribed or promulgated; (2) that all the requirements of this chapter and regulations prescribed under it relative to the document have been complied with; and (3) that the text of the regulations as published online in the Massachusetts Register is a true copy of the attested regulation as filed by the agency.

For the purpose of this section and section 6A the word "regulation" shall not include any regulation whose principal purpose and effect is to prescribe or approve rates chargeable for goods, services, or other things by specifically named persons and shall not include any portion of an existing publication which has been adopted as and incorporated by reference in a regulation of any agency, and which the state secretary determines is unnecessary to republish by reason of its already being reasonably available to that portion of the public affected by said agency's activities.

The contents of the Massachusetts Register shall be judicially noticed and, without prejudice to any other mode of citation, may be cited by volume and page number.

Section 6A. The state secretary shall cause to be published all currently effective agency regulations in a special publication of the Massachusetts Register on the website of the office of the state secretary, to be designated as the ''Code of Massachusetts Regulations''.

The Code of Massachusetts Regulations shall be updated by the state secretary on a biweekly basis.

Section 6B. Each agency shall include on its website links to (a) the agency's current regulations within the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, as published on the website of the state secretary, and (b) a list of any proposed regulations with the time and place of any public hearing or the anticipated time of agency action; the manner in which data, views or arguments may be submitted to the agency by any interested person; the substance of the proposed action; and where an existing regulation is being amended, a copy of the amended regulation which makes clear the changes being proposed.

This section requires online publication of the Massachusetts Register and the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, while authorizing hard copy publication of those documents.