Iowa Code 17A.1 – Citation and statement of purpose
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1. This chapter may be cited as the “Iowa Administrative Procedure Act”.
Terms Used In Iowa Code 17A.1
- Agency: means each board, commission, department, officer or other administrative office or unit of the state. See Iowa Code 17A.2
- Agency action: includes the whole or a part of an agency rule or other statement of law or policy, order, decision, license, proceeding, investigation, sanction, relief, or the equivalent or a denial thereof, or a failure to act, or any other exercise of agency discretion or failure to do so, or the performance of any agency duty or the failure to do so. See Iowa Code 17A.2
- Contested case: means a proceeding including but not restricted to ratemaking, price fixing, and licensing in which the legal rights, duties or privileges of a party are required by Constitution or statute to be determined by an agency after an opportunity for an evidentiary hearing. See Iowa Code 17A.2
- Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
- Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental subdivision, or public or private organization of any character other than an agency. See Iowa Code 17A.2
- Rulemaking: means the process for adopting, amending, or repealing a rule. See Iowa Code 17A.2
- state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
2. This chapter is intended to provide a minimum procedural code for the operation of all state agencies when they take action affecting the rights and duties of the public. Nothing in this chapter is meant to discourage agencies from adopting procedures providing greater protections to the public or conferring additional rights upon the public; and save for express provisions of this chapter to the contrary, nothing in this chapter is meant to abrogate in whole or in part any statute prescribing procedural duties for an agency which are greater than or in addition to those provided here. This chapter is meant to apply to all rulemaking and contested case proceedings and all suits for the judicial review of agency action that are not specifically excluded from this chapter or some portion thereof by its express terms or by the express terms of another chapter.
3. The purposes of this chapter are: To provide legislative oversight of powers and duties delegated to administrative agencies; to increase public accountability of administrative agencies; to simplify government by assuring a uniform minimum procedure to which all agencies will be held in the conduct of their most important functions; to increase public access to governmental information; to increase public participation in the formulation of administrative rules; to increase the fairness of agencies in their conduct of contested case proceedings; and to simplify the process of judicial review of agency action as well as increase its ease and availability.
4. In accomplishing its objectives, the intention of this chapter is to strike a fair balance between these purposes and the need for efficient, economical and effective government administration. The chapter is not meant to alter the substantive rights of any person or agency. Its impact is limited to procedural rights with the expectation that better substantive results will be achieved in the everyday conduct of state government by improving the process by which those results are attained.