Recommendation 2013-1 – Improving Consistency in Social Security Disability Adjudication identifies ways to improve the adjudication of Social Security disability benefits claims before administrative law judges and the Social Security Administration’s Appeals Council, suggests changes to the evaluation of opinion evidence from medical professionals, and encourages the SSA to enhance data capture and reporting.
Recommendation 2012-5 – Improving Coordination of Related Agency Responsibilities addresses the problem of overlapping and fragmented procedures associated with assigning multiple agencies similar or related functions, or dividing authority among agencies.
Improving Notice of Regulatory Changes studies the extent to which agencies’ current practices for providing public notice of relevant changes in law or policy (“regulatory changes”) might not provide some interested persons with actual notice of those changes.
Statement #18 – Improving the Timeliness of OIRA Regulatory Review (Adopted December 6, 2013) highlights potential mechanisms for improving review times of rules under review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), including promoting enhanced coordination between OIRA and agencies prior to the submission of rules, encouraging increased transparency concerning the reasons for delayed reviews, and ensuring that OIRA has adequate staffing to complete reviews in a timely manner.
Recommendation 2023-7, Improving Timeliness in Agency Adjudication examines strategies—including procedural, technological, personnel, and other reforms—that agencies have used or might use to address backlogs or delays in administrative adjudication.
Recommendation 2011-5 – Incorporation by Reference addresses ways in which agencies publish rules that refer to standards or other materials that have been published elsewhere.
Recommendation 2019-6 – Independent Research by Agency Adjudicators in the Internet Age addresses agency adjudicators’ increasing reliance on their own factual research—especially internet research—when conducting hearings and deciding cases.
Recommendation 2024-2, Individualized Guidance – This recommendation provides best practices to promote fairness, accuracy, and efficiency in agency processes for providing written guidance in response to requests for advice from members of the public.
Recommendation 2012-8 – Inflation Adjustment Act addresses agency adjustments to civil monetary penalties under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act (28 U.S.C. 2461 note). The recommendation urges Congress to change the current statutory framework by which agencies periodically adjust their penalties to address three provisions that result in penalty adjustments that may not track the actual rate of inflation. It also advises agencies to adjust their penalties for inflation as required by law.
Recommendation 2011-6 – International Regulatory Cooperation addresses how U.S. regulators can interact with foreign authorities to accomplish their domestic regulatory missions and eliminate unnecessary non-tariff barriers to trade. The recommendation includes proposals for enhanced cooperation and information gathering, more efficient deployment of limited resources, and better information exchanges.