TOPICS
TOPICS
Agencies put regulatory plans online
Agencies' regulatory priorities and planned actions now will be available online in an attempt to increase transparency and public participation and save the government money.
The General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget have moved online the Unified Regulatory Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, published biannually. The two agencies estimate that the shift from paper to the Internet will save an estimated $800,000 per year.
The agenda includes brief descriptions, timetables and contact information for almost 4,000 planned regulatory actions across about 60 departments and agencies, according to GSA. Regulatory actions primarily are notices of proposed rule-making or final rules anticipated during the next year. Agencies generally do not include regulations on military or foreign affairs functions, or those related solely to organization, management and personnel matters in the agenda.
The most recent one, published this week, is available on a joint GSA-OMB Web site, www.reginfo.gov, as is the one from the spring. GSA announced that prior editions dating to the fall of 1982 will be made available early in 2008.
"I am pleased that GSA has been able to help shed more light on the regulatory process while saving taxpayers money," said Kevin Messner, acting associate administrator of GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy.
Agencies submit information to GSA's Regulatory Information Service Center twice a year in compliance with public disclosure requirements for anticipated regulatory changes. They are not required by law, however, to adhere to the published schedules and are not confined in their regulatory activities to those published in the agenda, GSA spokeswoman Jen Millikin said.
"The Unified Regulatory Agenda and annual Regulatory Plan will be more accessible on the Internet in an enhanced user-friendly, searchable database format," said Susan Dudley, administrator of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. She said that in addition to improving transparency, the transition should "increase the public's access to the rule-making process."
COMMENTS
- While the approach of publishing the Unified Regulatory Agenda and annual Regulatory Plan on the Web is nice in concept, it still fails to address the shortcomings associated with the information disclosed. OMB, or preferably GSA should ensure (instill controls) that the information negotiated between OMB and the agencies, and subsequently posted is accurate and complete. For example, the current publication references regulations scheduled to be published in January of 2008. However, many of the documents have yet to be submitted to OMB for their 60-day review period, much less finished navigating their way through an internal agency clearance process. At least, when the documents were published in the Federal Register, there was the perception of legitimacy and legality. Now, every time someone points out an inaccuracy in the documents, the standard response will be “Oh sorry we missed that, we will fix it right away”, or “the web version has not been updated, yet” or even, “those darn web people; we will get the correct version up on the Web, ASAP. Thanks for pointing that out”. JP Burke Posted December 12, 2007 2:25 PM
