Ongoing projects

This project surveys regulatory agencies’ investigative procedures and recommend best practices to promote accuracy, efficiency, and fairness in agency investigations of specific regulated entities. Among other topics, the project addresses agency practices for the initiation of investigations; the exchange of evidence and arguments between the agency and the targets of investigations; the issuance of subpoenas and warrants; standards by

This project will consist of a large-scale study of agency rules of practice and procedure. Among other topics, it will identify sources and definitions of procedural rules and subjects commonly addressed in them, and address agency discretionary authority in promulgating such rules, including the APA’s exemption from notice-and-comment rulemaking.

The ADR Advisory Group advises ACUS on potential new initiatives to improve—through potential ACUS-recommended administrative and legislative reforms—the design and administration of ADR programs throughout the federal government. The ADR Advisory Group builds on ACUS’s longstanding study and implementation of ADR in federal administrative processes. All members of the ADR Advisory Group are government officials. 

Members of Congress have introduced bills designed to amend or overhaul aspects of federal administrative procedure. Given the significance of these proposed reforms and the number of bills introduced, the Office of the Chair has compiled these bills as an easy reference for congressional staff and other practitioners in the administrative law space.

The Council of Independent Regulatory Agencies (CIRA) provides a unique forum for officials at independent regulatory agencies to exchange information, hear the perspectives of outside experts, and identify issues that may be appropriate for Conference study.

The Council on Federal Agency Adjudication provides a forum for the heads of agency adjudication programs to exchange information—about procedural innovations, best management practices, and other subjects of mutual interest—that may be "useful in improving administrative procedure" (5 U.S.C. § 591). The Council also offers a forum for identifying subjects appropriate for ACUS study. 

The Federal Administrative Procedure Sourcebook is an annotated compilation of the key legal sources—including the Administrative Procedure Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Congressional Review Act, and executive orders—governing nearly every aspect of administrative procedure.

This project will study and offer 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.

The Interagency Roundtable meets every several months. Most meetings begin with a presentation by an agency official or outside expert, followed by a moderated discussion, on a topic to be announced in advance.

In 1991, the Conference adopted Recommendation 91-1, Federal Agency Cooperation with Foreign Government Regulators, which recommended practices such as information exchanges and establishment of common regulatory agendas to facilitate regulatory cooperation.