Request By:
Mr. Vic Hellard, Jr., Director
Legislative Research Commission
State Capitol Building
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Eileen Walsh, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested this office's opinion on a question relating to the review of administrative regulations. Under KRS 350.465 the Department for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection is authorized and directed to promulgate a comprehensive permanent regulatory program for the implementation of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-87) for the purpose of accepting and administering primary enforcement responsibilities pursuant to that Act. KRS 350.470 states:
For the purposes of regulations promulgated under the provisions of KRS 350.465, the interim joint committee on agriculture and natural resources shall have the same authority and responsibility as the administrative regulations review subcommittee has under KRS Chapter 13. Following the regulations review by the interim committee the same shall be reviewed by the administrative regulations review subcommittee for the purposes of KRS Chapter 13.
Your questions is who is to review the proposed administrative regulations when the interim has concluded and the Kentucky General Assembly is in session.
Regardless of whether the regulation is processed normally or is an emergency regulation authorized by KRS 13.085(2), it seems clear that while the General Assembly is in session the only authorized reviewing body is the Administrative Regulations Review Subcommittee of the Legislative Research Commission. In determining the meaning of a statute, we are to examine the language employed in enacting the statute. The words of a statute are to be given their usual, ordinary, and everyday meaning.
Gateway Construction Company v. Wallbaum, Ky., 356 S.W.2d 247 (1962).
The language of KRS 350.470 is plain and free of ambiguity. The statute indicates that the Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources shall have the same authority and responsibility as the Administrative Regulations Review Subcommittee has under KRS Chapter 13. While the General Assembly is in session, the interim joint committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources is not in existence. Therefore, while the legislature is in session the authority to review the administrative regulations rests exclusively with the Administrative Regulations Review Subcommittee of the Legislative Research Commission.
Therefore, during the session of the legislature, only the Administrative Regulations Review Subcommittee has the authority to review emergency administrative regulations. There is no interim committee with appropriate jurisdiction. Under KRS 13.085(2) the subcommittee must review the emergency regulation within sixty (60) days after it is filed.