Washington, D.C., December 15, 2023 – At its 80th Plenary Session on December 14th, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) adopted four recommendations to improve the efficiency, transparency, and fairness of administrative programs; reduce their costs to taxpayers; and enhance the public’s ability to participate in them. 

ACUS Chair Andrew Fois commended the Conference’s work in stating, “Today’s Plenary Session of the Administrative Conference, the 80th since its inception, was a tremendous success. The four recommendations approved by the voting Assembly help administrative agencies make their procedures more fair, effective, and efficient. Congratulations to everyone who helped make this happen.”

The ACUS Assembly adopted the following four recommendations:

Recommendation 2023-5: Best Practices for Adjudication Not Involving an Evidentiary Hearing. This recommendation examines the wide range of procedures that agencies use when adjudicating cases in programs in which there is no legally required opportunity for an evidentiary hearing. This recommendation offers a set of broadly applicable best practices that account for the diversity of matters that agencies decide through truly informal adjudication and promote fairness, accuracy, and efficiency. Additional information is available here.

Recommendation 2023-6: Identifying and Reducing Burdens on the Public in Administrative Processes. This recommendation examines best practices, such as public engagement, that agencies can use to identify unnecessary burdens that members of the public face when they engage with administrative programs or participate in administrative processes. It also recommends strategies agencies can use to reduce unnecessary burdens, such as simplifying processes, digitizing services, and collaborating with other agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Additional information is available here.

Recommendation 2023-7: Improving Timeliness in Agency Adjudication. This recommendation examines strategies—including procedural, technological, personnel, and other reforms—that agencies have used or might use to address backlogs or delays in administrative adjudication. The recommendation identifies best practices to help agencies devise plans to promote timeliness in administrative adjudication, in accord with principles of fairness, accuracy, and efficiency. Additional information is available here.

Recommendation 2023-8: User Fees. This recommendation identifies best practices for agencies and Congress to consider in designing and implementing user fees in administrative programs. The recommendation also identifies how Congress and agencies determine when user fees are appropriate; how agencies determine fair and reasonable user fees for specific programs, including whether there are reasons for waivers, exemptions, or reduced rates; when and how agencies should engage with the public in determining or modifying user fees; and how agencies should review their user fee programs. Additional information is available here.

About ACUS

The Administrative Conference of the United States is an independent, non-partisan federal agency within the executive branch dedicated to improving administrative law and federal regulatory processes. It conducts applied research, and provides expert recommendations and other advice, to improve federal agency procedures. Its membership is composed of senior federal officials, academics, and other experts from the private sector. Since 1968, ACUS has issued hundreds of recommendations, published reports and reference guides, and organized forums to improve the efficiency, adequacy, and fairness of administrative processes such as rulemaking and adjudication. Many have resulted in reforms by federal agencies, the President, Congress, and the Judicial Conference of the United States. Learn more at www.acus.gov.

 

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