Chap. 160.—An ACT to provide for the regulation of certain administrative agencies
with respect to the exercise of certain powers and the performance of certain
duties conferred and imposed upon them by law: and to such end, to establish
an agency for the purpose of effectuating certain of the regulatory provisions
thereof; to prescribe how it is to be constituted, its powers, duties, procedure,
limitations, and so forth; to prescribe the procedure to be pursued and the
notice to be given by the certain administrative agencies as to the exercise of
certain of their powers and the performance of certain of their duties; to pro-
vide for judicial review and appeal in certain cases. [H 140]

Approved March 8, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. Section 1. Short title—The short title of this act is ‘“Administra-
tive Agencies Act”.

Section 2. Definitions.—For the purpose of this act unless other-
wise clearly indicated: (1) “Commission” refers to “Commission on
Administrative Agencies”; (2) “Agency”, “Agencies” refer to one, or
more, or all of the administrative agencies embraced and enumerated in
this act; (3) “Rule” means any rule, regulation, standard, or statement
of policy of general application, including amendments and repeals, pro-
mulgated or effected by an agency to implement, interpret, or make
specific the legislation enforced or administered by it or governing its
organization and procedure, or to render inoperative any existing rule,
but it does not include regulations solely concerning internal manage-
ment of the agency and not affecing private rights or interests.

Section 3. Commission on Administrative Agencies; general pow-
ers ; sessions ; compensation.—(a) A commission, entitled “Commission
on Administrative Agencies”, to be composed and to consist of the Speak-
er of the House of Delegates, who shall be chairman, and five (5) mem-
bers of the House of Delegates appointed by the Speaker, and three (3)
members of the Senate appointed by the President of the Senate, is
created. Appointment of members of the Commission, excepting those
first appointed, shall be made during each regular session of the General
Assembly and they shall serve for a term beginning on the day after
adjournment sine die of the General Assembly, and ending upon the
adjournment sine die of the next regular session, or until their successors
have been appointed and have qualified. The first appointment of mem-
bers shall be made immediately upon this act becoming effective. Vacan-
cies shall be filled in the same manner as original appointments are
made. The Commission shall elect from its membership a vice-chair-
man, who shall, in the absence of the chairman, perform the duties of the
chairman herein specified.

(b) The Commission is empowered to do all things necessary or
reasonably incidental to its organization, the exercise of its functions, and
the performance of its duties. _

(c) Regular sessions of the Commission shall be held at the Capitol
in Richmond, beginning on the first Monday in January and on the
third Monday in July of each year, but if the day so fixed be a legal
holiday the session shall begin on the next secular day. Special sessions
shall be held upon the call of the chairman. A majority of the member-
ship shall be necessary to a quorum for the transacting of business, but
less than a majority may adjourn from day to day or from time to time.

(d) Members of the Commission shall be entitled to a per diem
of ten dollars ($10.00) a day for each day or part of a day necessarily
spent, and to reimbursement for their actual and necessary expenditures.
in the discharge of their duties. These per diem and expense allow-
ances and all other expenses shall be paid by the State Treasurer from
the General fund upon warrants issued by the Comptroller, upon vouchers
signed by the chairman of the Commission.

Section 4. Agencies included.—The provisions of this act are ap-
plicable only to the following administrative agencies: Board of Medical
Examiners for the State of Virginia; Virginia State Board of Dental
Examiners; Board of Pharmacy of the State of Virginia; State Board
of Examiners for Graduate Nurses; Board of Veterinary Examiners:
State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors of Virginia; Virginia
State Board of Examiners in Optometry ; State Board for the Examina-
tion and Certification of Architects, Professional Engineers, and Land
Surveyors; State Registration Board for Contractors; State Board of
Accountancy; Virginia Real Estate Commission; State Dry Cleaners
Board; State Board of Photographic Examiners; and State Apprentice
Council.

Section 5. Rules of agencies; function of Commission.—(a) All
rules promulgated by any of these agencies, and then in force, shall ex-
pire and cease to be effective at midnight on the thirty-first day of De-
cember, nineteen hundred forty-four. Thereafter, no rule promulgated
by any agency shall become effective unless it has been approved by the
Commission, and every rule so approved shall be published in the Ad-
ministrative Code of Virginia or in a supplement thereto, or 1f there
be no such publication then if and so directed by the Governor.

(b) Nothing in this act shall be construed to empower the Com-
mission to promulgate any rule, nor to exercise any power other than to
approve or disapprove rules proposed by these agencies, nor shall any-
thing in this act be construed to empower any agency to promulgate any
rules other than those validly authorized by the statute creating the
agency, but the agency may propose cognate changes and additions at
the hearing before the Commission and the Commission may act upon
same without necessity of further hearing before the agency.

Section 6. Notice of proposed changes in rules—(a) No rule pro-
posed for effect after the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred
forty-four, by any agency, shall be submitted to nor approved by the
Commission unless a copy of the proposed rule has been delivered to
the Director of the Division of Statutory Research and Drafting. who
shall cause a copy of the proposed rule, or a fair and adequate synopsis.
together with notice of the date and place of public hearing, to be pub-
lished at the expense of the agency in the “Virginia State Register”, or
if there be no such publication then in a newspaper oft general circula-
tion published in the City of Richmond, not less than fifteen nor more
than thirty days prior to a session of the agency at which the public
hearing on the proposal is to be had.
(b) Thereafter, when the proposed rule is submitted to the Com-
mission for its action a reasonable opportunity on the part of those ap-
pearing to be interested to be heard shall be afforded in such manner as
the Commission prescribes by general or specific direction.

Section 7. Procedure at certain hearings conducted by agencies.—
(a) No license, property right or privilege of any person (hereinafter
referred to as the respondent) shall be abridged in any manner or to
any degree by the withholding of a renewal of any license, or by any
order, decree, judgment or action of any agency, unless the proceeding
against the respondent complies with the following conditions: (1) no
withholding of the renewal of any license, or any order, decree, judg-
ment or action on the part of any agency, shall be valid unless preceded
by a hearing, at which the agency and the respondent have the right and
there is opportunity afforded to have process issued for the production
of witnesses and documents on its or his behalf; (2) written notices,
stating the date, time, and place at which the hearing is to be held, shall
be given to the respondent not less than ten (10) days before the date
of the hearing, and the notice shall reasonably inform the respondent
of the nature of the proceeding; (3) no information or evidence shall
be considered by the agency except such as is made a part of the hear-
ing, plus such records, reports of inspectors or subordinates of the
agency, or other data in the possession of the agency, as shall have been
presented by it to all parties with opportunity for cross-examining the
authors thereof; (4) the admissibility of evidence in any proceeding
before the agency shall be determined in accordance with the practice
prevailing in the courts of records of Virginia, unless it is necessary to
waive such practice in the particular hearing in order to ascertain the
substantial rights of the parties, but, in event of such waiver, only evi-
dence of a probative value shall be admitted; (5) in order to be valid
and operative, the order, decree, judgment or action of the agency must
be reduced to writing and a certified copy thereof served on the respon-
dent, and the order, decree, judgment or memorandum of action must
contain the explicit findings of fact upon which the conclusions of the
agency are based.

Section 8. Appeals from actions by agencies—(a) Any person in
interest, aggrieved by the withholding of the renewal of a license by, or
by any order, decree, judgment or action of, any agency, has the right to
challenge the validity of the withholding of the license or of the order,
decree. judgment or action in any court of record as hereinafter pro-
vided, by any appropriate legal, equitable, or extraordinary remedy avail-
able under the laws of this State.

(b) Whenever the renewal of a license is withheld, or at any time
not exceeding thirty days from the date an order, decree, judgment or
memorandum of action of the agency is served upon him, the person
thus aggrieved may institute a proceeding in any court of record of the
city or county in which he resides, or in which 1s located the principal
office of his business, or in which is located his property affected by the
withholding of a renewal of a license, or by the order, decree, Judgment
or action complained of, or in which the agency has its principal office.
The remedies provided in this section are in addition to any remedies
provided in the statute creating and defining the jurisdiction and powers
of the agency.

(c) The record in the proceeding in the court of record shall con-
sist of all documentary evidence admitted into the administrative hear-
ing, any stipulation agreed to by all parties as to the oral testimony intro-
duced at the hearing and any objections made to the admission of testi-
mony, or a transcript of the evidence if a stenographic record was made
of the proceeding.

(d) Unless the statute creating the agency provides otherwise, the
review in the court of record on the appeal shall be before the judge
without a jury and be confined to the record made before the agency
itself, but the court for good cause may allow additional evidence to be
introduced in order properly and fairly to determine the rights of the
parties, and the court is empowered to determine all questions of juris-
diction, venue and law, and to review the findings of fact by the agency
to the extent of ascertaining whether they are supported by substantial
and reliable evidence. From the final decision of the court of record
an appeal to the Supreme Court of Appcals shall lie as a matter of right.

(e) Nothing in this act shall be construed as providing for any ap-
peal to a court from any action of an agency in connection with the
original issuance of any license or from any action of the Commission,
application to any court with respect to these matters being governed
by general law or special law other than this act, as the case may be.