The rapid evolution of computer technology raises many economic and policy issues that affect the acquisition and release of information by government agencies. New information technologies can improve public access to public information and reduce paperwork burdens. They can also impose significant economic burdens, however, and they may stimulate competition between government agencies and established...
Historical Recommendations (1968 - 1995)
- Recommendation number: 88-10
- Adopted on: December 9, 1988
- Tags: Computers, Electronic Records Management, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Public Information, Technology
- Recommendation number: 88-11
- Adopted on: December 9, 1988
- Tags: Confidentiality, Discovery, Dispute Resolution, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Mediation, Neutrals, Settlements
The resolution of issues through negotiations among the affected parties has long been recognized as an essential ingredient of the administrative process....
- Recommendation number: 87-1
- Adopted on: June 11, 1987
- Tags: Rulemaking, Worker Health and Safety
The Administrative Conference has undertaken a study of the rulemaking process at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is recognized that OSHA’s mandate to regulate any substance or hazard that poses a significant risk to workers and, to the extent feasible, make every workplace safe is daunting, and that alternative approaches to substance-by-substance regulation may be necessary. The...
- Recommendation number: 87-2
- Adopted on: June 11, 1987
- Tags: Congress, Whistleblowers, Worker Health and Safety
Private sector employees who make disclosures concerning health and safety matters pertaining to the workplace are protected against retaliatory actions by over a dozen Federal laws. By common usage these employees, as well as others who make similar disclosures concerning fraud or other misconduct (but who are beyond the Conference’s current study),1 have become known as whistleblowers. Under current...
- Recommendation number: 87-3
- Adopted on: June 11, 1987
- Tags: Attorneys
In 1985 the Federal Government employed over 20,000 lawyers in various positions. At the same time it spent millions of dollars to retain private attorneys to provide diverse legal services. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board/Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FHLBB) accounted for most of these expenditures. The attorney fees paid by the FDIC...
There is widespread interest in Congress and the Executive Branch in instituting user fees in certain government programs. Although a general user fee statute (31 U.S.C. 9701) dates to 1952, recent studies, including a report of the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, have urged expanded application of such fees. In light of these developments, the Administrative Conference has undertaken a...
- Recommendation number: 87-5
- Adopted on: June 12, 1987
- Tags: Arbitration, Congress, Dispute Resolution, Mediation
The Administrative Conference has recommended that agencies employ alternative means of dispute resolution (ADR) in Federal programs.1 ADR techniques for rulemaking include structured negotiation and mediation; for adjudication, they also include arbitration, factfinding and minitrials.2 The bulk of these techniques do not alter the placement of policymaking authority within the agencies, and therefore pose...
- Recommendation number: 87-6
- Adopted on: December 17, 1987
- Tags: Disability, Federalism
In Fiscal Year 1986, nearly two and one half million individuals applied for disability benefits under two federal programs administered by the Social Security Administration: Retirement, Survivors, Disability and Health Insurance (RSDHI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Payments made annually to their seven million beneficiaries totaled twenty-nine billion dollars during that period. Certain aspects...
- Recommendation number: 87-7
- Adopted on: December 18, 1987
- Tags: Administrative Review, Appeals, Disability
The Social Security disability system is described generally in Recommendation 87-6 which focuses on the initial determination process at the state-level Disability Determination Service (DDS) offices. This Recommendation addresses the later stages of review by the Social Security Administration (SSA).1
The first stage of review by federal decisionmakers is the third step in...
- Recommendation number: 87-8
- Adopted on: December 17, 1987
- Tags: Congress, Health Care, Medicare
In 1986, the Administrative Conference undertook a broad overview of the administrative procedures employed by the federal government (primarily the Health Care Financing Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services) in administering and deciding appeals under the Medicare program. Recommendation 86-5, Medicare Appeals, 1 CFR 305.86-5, urged the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA...