Federal agencies must pay the Federal Register by the page for the length of their rulemaking preambles & rules. Thus a Register NPRM is far from a complete recital of the materials supporting a rulemaking proposal. As a consequence agencies should use the Web to supplement the Register.
Require Web Sites That Provide Greater Explanatory Materials
Why Is This Idea Important?: Many agencies have taken this step but they often do not do so in a manner that is designed to educate the public about the complexities of a particular rule. When a rule is economically significant or other significant under the Unified Agenda criteria an agency should at a minimum design a web page that explains the proposal to the public at large. One great example of this dates back to the Clinton Administration and the roadless rulemaking. The Forest Service developed a Web site that let you see the roadless areas in each National Forest. Thus the entire nation had an opportunity to see the scope of this rulemaking and submit comments on national forest areas of concern to them. Even with Regulations.gov the public at large would have had no idea where the roadless areas are from just examining an online docket. As those who are familiar with the Register know, its prose is often dense. A web site can highlight the key issues and point individual commenters and state and/or local NGOs to key documentation in the docket that would explain an issue in greater detail. This should increase the quality of participation by educating the public about what the agency is planning to do. I think this should be a default rule for big regulatory packages. Obviously this does not touch the vast number of rules that agencies work on but where the rule is significant an agency would have to assume a greater burden of speaking non-regulatese.
Submitted by bbrandon 2 years ago
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