Six emergency powers laws grant to state departments powers they already possess through the Administrative Procedures Act. While these statutes empower state agencies to act unilaterally, they contain the most limited scope of authorities of any emergency powers laws in Michigan. Four simply permit agencies to suspend a license they previously granted to a private business or individual. The other two grant state departments the power to issue emergency rules without a public hearing, a power also afforded through the APA.
All state agencies may unilaterally and immediately suspend a license that state law requires private entities to obtain before they engage in certain activities. The APA states: “If the agency finds that the public health, safety or welfare requires emergency action and incorporates this finding in its order, summary suspension of a license may be ordered effective on the date specified in the order.”[149] Licensees have the opportunity to challenge this decision, but their license can be suspended immediately. A suspension may continue throughout those legal proceedings, which must “be promptly commenced.”[150]
Despite this grant of power to all state agencies, four state laws appear to grant this same authority again to a handful of departments. The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs may immediately suspend the license of a mobile home operator or dealer.[151] The director of the Department of Insurance and Financial Services may do the same for businesses and individuals engaged in debt management.[152] The statutes that bestow these powers contain an almost exact copy of the language used in the APA to grant them this same power. These statutes seem unnecessary.
The environmental department may do the same for landfill operators, if it believes a licensee is violating the law and its action “constitutes an emergency or poses an imminent risk to the public health or environment.”[153] The health department can immediately suspend the license of a manufacturer or distributor of a controlled substance if it believes “an imminent danger to the public health or safety warrants this action.”[154] Because the APA affords these departments this power, these grants of authority appear redundant.
Two other statutes seem to duplicate the APA’s grant of emergency rulemaking power to state agencies. The Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act authorizes a state official to issue unilateral “emergency orders” to administer the law on mineral wells.[155] How these orders would differ from emergency rules issued under the APA is not obvious. Similarly, a section of the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act permits the director of public health to issue an “emergency standard.” Standards issued in this way appear identical to emergency rules permitted under the APA. The MIOSHA statute specifies that the state department must follow the APA’s emergency rulemaking procedures, and the APA’s definition of “rules” includes an agency’s “standards.”[156]