Idaho Agriculture and Water Rulemaking: The 2026 Dockets and How a Rule Becomes Binding

Idaho rulemaking: the eleven weeks of session, and the forty-one after it

Idaho's legislative session runs about eleven weeks. Agency rulemaking runs the other forty-one, and it is where the operating detail of a statute gets written: what a pesticide applicator must record, what a dairy must do with byproduct, how long the Department of Water Resources has to ask a water right applicant for more information.

The comment window on a proposed rule opens when it publishes in the Idaho Administrative Bulletin and closes on a date printed in the notice, whether or not anyone told the affected industry. This page is the 2026 record of the dockets that reach an agricultural operation, and the deadlines that govern them.

How a rule becomes binding in Idaho

Four steps, each with its own deadline, all under Title 67, Chapter 52, Idaho Code.

1. Negotiated rulemaking. Before adopting, amending, or repealing a rule, an agency must determine whether negotiated rulemaking is feasible. If it is, the agency publishes a notice of intent to promulgate rules in the Bulletin, stating the subject, the purpose, the statutory authority, and the principal issues, and naming someone to send comments to (Section 67-5220). Agencies are directed to use this route whenever it is feasible. If they do not, they must explain why in the proposed rule notice. This is the only stage that runs before the agency has drafted rule text.

2. Proposed rule. The notice must carry the specific statutory authority, a nontechnical statement of substance, any fee imposed or increased, any negative fiscal impact on the general fund over $10,000, the text in legislative format, hearing details, and the comment deadline (Section 67-5221). Comment runs not less than 21 days from publication. An oral presentation must be provided if 25 persons, a political subdivision, or an agency request one in writing, within 14 days of publication or within 14 days before the comment period ends, whichever is later (Section 67-5222). Since July 1, 2026 agencies must also post a recording of any hearing within 15 days and keep it up for three years.

3. Pending rule. After considering the comments, the agency publishes the pending rule with a statement of reasons and of any changes from the proposed text. It cannot publish until at least seven days after comment closes (Section 67-5224).

4. Legislative approval. A germane standing committee reviews the rule, and the rule is approved or rejected by concurrent resolution of both chambers. A pending rule that is not approved expires at sine die of the session it was submitted to. Approved rules take effect on July 1 of that year unless the resolution says otherwise (Section 67-5291).

In Idaho, silence kills a rule rather than passing it, and the Legislature can reject a rule in part, terminating just that provision.

Temporary rules are the exception: the Governor may find that an imminent threat, a compliance deadline, a reduction in regulatory burden, protection of citizens' rights, or a natural disaster requires a rule before legislative review (Section 67-5226). A temporary rule not approved by concurrent resolution expires by its own terms or at the next sine die, whichever is earlier.

The new thing in Idaho for 2026: every rule chapter now comes up for review

Section 67-5292, Idaho Code requires every rule chapter in effect on July 1, 2026 to be reviewed by the Legislature on a staggered schedule between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2034, and every eight years after that. Before its review date, the promulgating agency must report to the Legislature whether the substantive content of the chapter is still necessary, and whether it would be better placed in Idaho Code than left as a rule. The schedule was published by the Office of the Administrative Rules Coordinator and covers 381 chapters.

This is already visible in the docket. Of the 22 rulemaking notices published between April and August 2026 in the agriculture, water, and resource agencies, 11 sit on chapters whose first periodic review falls in 2026. IDWR's June notice on the Water Appropriation Rules says so on its face, citing Section 67-5292 and stating that the department is assessing whether the chapter's content is still necessary.

These are the Idaho agriculture and water rule chapters due for agency review in 2026 and 2027, which is the practical version of the schedule. Legislative review follows the year after.

The 2026 Idaho rulemaking record

Through the August 5 bulletin, Idaho published 135 rulemaking notices in 2026. Fifty-three came from the six agencies whose rules reach an agricultural operation: Agriculture, Water Resources, Lands, Environmental Quality, Fish and Game, and Parks and Recreation. Forty-eight of those are rules and five are Fish and Game proclamations, which set seasons and limits rather than rules.

January is the heaviest month in that record, and it carries the previous cycle. The 23 agriculture and resource notices in the January bulletin were adoptions of pending rules from the 2025 cycle, going to the 2026 Legislature for approval: 14 from Agriculture, six from Fish and Game, two from Lands, one from Parks and Recreation.

The Idaho rulemaking dockets opened since then are the ones still moving.

Where the table says "see agency notice", the agency did not print a date and instead directs comment through its own website, which several DEQ notices do.

Two proposed rules are open as this page is written. DEQ's revision of the selenium aquatic life criteria in the Water Quality Standards takes comment through September 4, 2026, with a hearing to be scheduled if 25 persons, a political subdivision, or an agency request one in writing by August 21. The hazardous waste rule takes comment through August 26, with the same hearing request mechanism by August 19.

Two chapters were revoked outright this year, Certificates of Free Sale and Honey Standards, which is what a periodic review can produce when an agency concludes a chapter is no longer necessary.

What Idaho rulemaking means for an operation or an association

The four stages take input at different points. By the time a rule is proposed, the agency has drafted text; by the time it is pending, the remaining question is whether the Legislature approves it. A notice of intent asks for input before rule text exists.

Two consequences follow from the deadlines above. First, 25 persons, a political subdivision, or an agency can compel a hearing on any substantive proposed rule. Second, comment periods run from publication and can be as short as 21 days, so the Bulletin sets the clock. It publishes on the first Wednesday.

If a rule chapter appears in the 2026 or 2027 review rows above, the agency is writing a report to the Legislature on whether that chapter is still necessary, and that report precedes any rulemaking docket on the chapter.

What to watch in Idaho agriculture and water rulemaking

The IDWR Water Appropriation Rules docket is 37-0308-2601. Its stated scope includes the process for requesting additional information from water right applicants, including a 45-day limit on IDWR's initial request under Rule 040.04.

ISDA's four negotiated dockets from July, on hemp, weights and measures, Grade A milk, and invasive species and noxious weeds, all closed comment on August 14, 2026, and will surface again as proposed rules.

The next legislative session takes up whatever becomes pending. The rule-review resolutions that come out of it are recorded in the session summaries for 2025 and 2026.