Requiring that the general assembly provide for the publication of certain material and associated electronic records pertaining to official legal publications. Effective 7-1-19

This bill is based on the uniform electronic legal material Act (UELMA), prepared by the national conference of commissioners of uniform state laws in 2011. The prefatory note stresses the need for flexible approaches by adopting jurisdictions, observing that the UELMA “does not require specific technologies, leaving the choice of technology for authentication and preservation up to the states”. Specifically, the bill amends Code chapter 2B that provides for the publication of official and unofficial editions of legal publications, including the Iowa Constitution, the Iowa Acts, the Iowa Code, the Iowa Administrative Bulletin, and the Iowa Administrative Code. The bill requires the legislative services agency when acting as custodian of information in a secure electronic repository, provide for the publication of legal material associated with those publications to enable user access on a permanent and secure basis, including by providing methods of authentication and preservation of electronic records. The bill provides for the implementation of its provisions according to a plan or report to be submitted to the legislative council which will include such methods. The bill makes a number of other conforming and miscellaneous changes to the same Code chapter to implement the UELMA and also to codify current publication practice.