                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

DEFINITIONS (§ 2.2-4001)

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning:
		&#8220;Agency&#8221; means any authority, instrumentality, officer, board or
other unit of the state government empowered by the basic laws to make
regulations or decide cases.
		&#8220;Agency action&#8221; means either an agency&#8217;s regulation or case
decision or both, any violation, compliance, or noncompliance with which could
be a basis for the imposition of injunctive orders, penal or civil sanctions of
any kind, or the grant or denial of relief or of a license, right, or benefit by
any agency or court.
		&#8220;Basic law&#8221; or &#8220;basic laws&#8221; means provisions of the
Constitution and statutes of the Commonwealth authorizing an agency to make
regulations or decide cases or containing procedural requirements therefor.
		&#8220;Case&#8221; or &#8220;case decision&#8221; means any agency proceeding
or determination that, under laws or regulations at the time, a named party as a
matter of past or present fact, or of threatened or contemplated private action,
either is, is not, or may or may not be (i) in violation of such law or
regulation or (ii) in compliance with any existing requirement for obtaining or
retaining a license or other right or benefit.
		&#8220;Guidance document&#8221; means the same as that term is defined in §
2.2-4101.
		&#8220;Hearing&#8221; means agency processes other than those informational or
factual inquiries of an informal nature provided in §§ 2.2-4007.01 and
2.2-4019 and includes only (i) opportunity for private parties to submit factual
proofs in formal proceedings as provided in § 2.2-4009 in connection with the
making of regulations or (ii) a similar right of private parties or requirement
of public agencies as provided in § 2.2-4020 in connection with case decisions.
		&#8220;Hearing officer&#8221; means an attorney selected from a list
maintained by the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court in accordance with §
2.2-4024.
		&#8220;Public assistance and social services programs&#8221; means those
programs specified in § 63.2-100.
		&#8220;Registrar&#8221; means the Registrar of Regulations employed as
provided in § 2.2-4102.
		&#8220;Rule&#8221; or &#8220;regulation&#8221; means any statement of general
application, having the force of law, affecting the rights or conduct of any
person, adopted by an agency in accordance with the authority conferred on it by
applicable basic laws.
		&#8220;Subordinate&#8221; means (i) one or more but less than a quorum of the
members of a board constituting an agency, (ii) one or more of its staff members
or employees, or (iii) any other person or persons designated by the agency to
act in its behalf.
		&#8220;Virginia Register of Regulations&#8221; means the publication issued
under the provisions of Article 6 (§ 2.2-4031 et seq.).
		&#8220;Virginia Regulatory Town Hall&#8221; means the website operated by the
Department of Planning and Budget, which has online public comment forums and
displays information about regulatory actions under consideration in the
Commonwealth and sends this information to registered public users.

HISTORY: 1975, c. 503, § 9-6.14:4; 1977, cc. 377, 381; 1979, c. 613; 1984, c.
187; 1985, cc. 67, 602; 1997, c. 11; 2001, c. 844; 2002, c. 747; 2007, cc. 873,
916; 2011, cc. 241, 315; 2017, c. 488; 2018, c. 820; 2019, c. 362.