Recommendation 2019-4 – Revised Model Rules for Implementation of the Equal Access to Justice Act revises the Conference’s 1986 model agency procedural rules for addressing claims under the Act, which provides for the award of attorney fees to individuals and small businesses that prevail against the government in certain agency adjudications.
Completed projects
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Recommendation 2011-2 – Rulemaking Comments recognizes innovations in the commenting process that could promote public participation and improve rulemaking outcomes.
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Recommendation 2020-1, Rules on Rulemakings – encourages agencies to consider issuing rules governing their rulemaking procedures. It identifies subjects that agencies should consider addressing in their rules on rulemakings—without prescribing any particular procedures—and it urges agencies to solicit public input on these rules and make them publicly available.
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Recommendation 2013-3 – Science in the Administrative Process promotes transparency in agencies’ scientific decision-making, including: articulation of questions to be informed by science information; attribution for agency personnel who contributed to scientific analyses; public access to underlying data and literature; and conflict of interest disclosures for privately funded research used by the agencies in licensi
Recommendation 2016-6 – Self-Represented Parties in Administrative Proceedings offers best practices for agencies dealing with self-represented parties in administrative hearings. Recommendations include the use of triage and diagnostic tools, development of a continuum of services to aid parties, and re-evaluation and simplification of existing hearing practices, where possible.
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Recommendation 2024-3, Senate-Confirmed Officials and Administrative Adjudication – examines, as a legal and practical matter, whether, when, how, and how often agency heads and other Senate-confirmed officials participate in the adjudication of cases across a range of federal administrative programs.
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Recommendation 2018-2 – Severability in Agency Rulemaking, formerly titled Minimizing the Cost of Judicial Review, encourages federal agencies that anticipate litigation over their rules to consider early in the rulemaking process whether a rule is severable—that is, divisible into portions that can and should function independently. It also identifies steps agencies should take if th
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Recommendation 2013-5 – Social Media in Rulemaking addresses the various policy and legal issues agencies face when using social media in rulemaking. The study examined whether and when agencies should use social media to support rulemaking activities. It also seeks to identify relevant issues, define applicable legal and policy constraints on agency action, resolve legal uncertainty to the greatest extent possible, and encourage agencies to find appropriate and innovative ways to use social media to facilitate broader, more meaningful public participation in rulemaking activities.
In April 2018, the President signed into law the “Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act of 2018” following its unanimous passage in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives (
Based on a survey of the entire United States Code, the Sourcebook (available here) comprehensively analyzes more than 650 statutory provisions that govern how federal courts review agency rules and orders.