What the Unified Agenda Tells Us About Notice and Comment Rulemaking

Miller, Sofie E.

GW Work

What the Unified Agenda Tells Us About Notice and Comment Rulemaking Open Access

Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report finding that federal agencies published about 35 percent of the major rules issued between 2003 and 2010 without seeking public comment through a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). As Susan Dudley explained in a policy commentary on GAO’s report, “This means that a significant percentage of new regulations expected to have an impact of $100 million or more on the economy are given the force of law without public input. GAO finds a sharp increase in the practice of issuing a final regulation without first seeking public comment in 2009, when 40 percent of all major final rules were issued without notice and comment, compared to 26 percent in 2008.” Unfortunately, a look at the recently-released Unified Agenda indicates that this trend may be continuing, and that agencies may continue to regulate without seeking public comment.