I (e) Hearing. - An agency must hold a public hearing on a rule it proposes to
2 adopt if the agency publishes the text of the proposed rule in the North Carolina
3 Register and the agency receives a written request for a public hearing on the proposed
4 rule within 15 days after the notice of text is published. The agency must accept
5 comments at the public hearing on both the proposed rule and any fiscal note that has
6 been prepared in connection with the proposed rule.
7 An agency may hold a public hearing on a proposed rule and fiscal note in other
8 circumstances. When an agency is required to hold a public hearing on a proposed rule
9 or decides to hold a public hearing on a proposed rule when it is not required to do so,
l0 the agency must publish in the North Carolina Register a notice of the date, time, and
I I place of the public hearing. The hearing date of a public hearing held after the agency
12 publishes notice of the hearing in the North Carolina Register must be at least 15 days
13 after the date the notice is published. If notice of a public hearing has been published in
14 the North Carolina Register and that public hearing has been cancelled, the agency shall
15 publish notice in the North Carolina Register at least 15 days prior to the date of any
l6 rescheduledhearing.
17 (0 Comments. - An agency must accept comments on the text of a proposed rule
l8 that is published in the North Carolina Register and any fiscal note that has been
19 prepared in connection with the proposed rule for at least 60 days after the text is
20 published or until the date of any public hearing held on the proposed rule, whichever is
21 longer. An agency must consider fully all written and oral comments received.
22 (g) Adoption. - An agency shall not adopt a rule until the time for commenting
23 on the proposed text of the rule has elapsed and shall not adopt a rule if more than 12
24 months have elapsed since the end of the time for commenting on the proposed text of
25 the rule. Prior to adoption, an agency shall review any fiscal note that has been prepared
26 for the proposed rule and consider any public comments received in connection with the
27 proposed rule or the fiscal note. An agency shall not adopt a rule that differs
28 substantially from the text of a proposed rule published in the North Carolina Register
29 unless the agency publishes the text of the proposed different rule in the North Carolina
30 Register and accepts comments on the proposed different rule for the time set in
31 subsection (f) of this section.
32 An adopted rule differs substantially from a proposed rule if it does one or more of
33 the following:
34 (1) Affects the interests of persons who, based on the proposed text of the
35 rule published in the North Carolina Register, could not reasonably
36 have determined that the rule would affect their interests.
37 (2) Addresses a subject matter or an issue that is not addressed in the
38 proposed text of the rule.
39 (3) Produces an effect that could not reasonably have been expected based
40 on the proposed text of the rule.
4l When an agency adopts a rule, it shall not take subsequent action on the rule without
42 following the procedures in this Part. An agency must submit an adopted rule to the
43 Rules Review Commission within 30 days of the agency's adoption of the rule.
44 (h) Explanation. - An agency must issue a concise written statement explaining
45 why the agency adopted a rule if within 15 days after the agency adopts the rule, a
46 person asks the agency to do so. The explanation must state the principal reasons for
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