Managing the Federal Rulemaking Process

Our Mission is to :

• Facilitate public participation in the Federal regulatory process, particularly the public notice-and-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act.
• Enable Federal agencies to effectively manage the regulatory process, including reviewing public comments.
• Support the Administration’s regulatory priorities by publishing the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, and facilitating Office of Management and Budget review of significant regulations and information collections.

Our Vision is to:

• Improve both agency and public useability and access to regulatory information through enhanced user interfaces, workflows, reporting tools, and more.
• Drive innovation strategies to engage the public in the federal rulemaking process while strengthening the integrity of rulemaking information.
• Enhance analysis of regulations and their impacts along with analysis of public comments by leveraging innovative technologies.

The Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC) was created in 1981, and the eRulemaking Program was created in 2002. Over the years, both programs have successfully delivered shared IT services to agencies, the public, and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The underlying technology has not kept pace with modern approaches, however, and there are multiple opportunities for improvement.

Through a combination of improved customer engagement and underlying technology modernization, GSA is committed to supporting the rulemaking process. This includes:

• Streamlining the rulemaking process while strengthening the integrity and security of regulatory information through technology modernization and data analysis strategies.
• Improving agencies’ ability to review and process massive volumes of public comments.
• Improving the standards, quality, and accessibility of regulatory information. This can improve government regulatory services and support third party uses of regulatory data, including private sector services and academic research.
• Sharing regulatory data across systems to enable both policy makers and the public to have a clearer picture of the impacts and relationships across rulemakings in support of reduced regulatory burden and streamlined regulatory process.
• Improving both agency and public useability and access to regulatory information through improved user interfaces, workflows, reporting tools, and more.
• Pursuing innovative ways to engage the public in the federal rulemaking process.