Rulemaking (Documents)

(a) The growing complexity and scope of government regulation resulting from informal rulemaking proceedings have increased the importance of communication and coordination among agencies. Because the President, as the nation’s Chief Executive, may be deemed accountable for what agencies do, efforts to achieve policy coordination through Presidential channels have become...

Federal regulation has grown in both scope and complexity in recent decades. Among its wide variety of national goals are: Ensuring competitive markets, spurring economic growth, checking inflation, reducing unemployment, protecting national security, assuring equal opportunity, increasing social security, protecting the environment, ensuring safety...

The Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 553, establishes the procedural requirements for notice-and-comment rulemaking. It requires that an agency generally publish notice and provide opportunity for public comment before adopting a rule. The section also provides for a number of specific exemptions. One of these exemptions in subsection (b)(A), provides...

Informed observers generally agree that the rulemaking process has become both increasingly less effective and more time-consuming. The Administrative Procedure Act does not reflect many of the current realities of rulemaking. The APA’s cumbersome “formal rulemaking” procedures are rarely used except in some adjudicative-type rate proceedings....