An amendment is a change made to a previously adopted law or motion.  It is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document.  Amendments are often used when it is better to change the document than to write a new one.  Repeal is the removal or reversal of a law, and is generally done when a law is no longer effective, or it is having negative consequences.

Although regulations may be repealed or amended and new rules and regulations adopted, the changes must be made in conformity with prescribed statutory procedures.[i]  However, an administrative rule may not be modified, revised, amended, or rewritten, under the guise of interpretation.[ii]  Federal agencies possess the authority to clarify or set aside existing rules, when the authority to clarify or reconsider a rule arises directly from a statute or pursuant to agency rule-making authority.[iii]

[i] Jefferson County Citizens for Econ. Pres. v. County Comm’n, 686 S.E.2d 16 (W. Va. 2009)

[ii] Huffman v. Goals Coal Co., 223 W. Va. 724 (W. Va. 2009)

[iii] Sprint Corp. v. FCC, 315 F.3d 369 (D.C. Cir. 2003)