FederalRegister.gov Now Integrated with Regulations.gov

Michael White of the Office of the Federal Register has posted In Synch With Regulations.gov, on the OFR Blog.

Here is a summary of the post:

FederalRegister.gov (FR2) is now tightly integrated with the electronic dockets on Regulations.gov. Comments submitted to Regulations.gov and processed for public display are now accessible from FR2. We also added connections to “Supporting/Related Materials” maintained in the dockets.

For more information, please see the complete post.

HT @dan_munz.

Citizen Lawmaking and Technology: What’s New and What’s Ahead?

Citizen Lawmaking and Technology: What’s New and What’s Ahead? is the title of my new post at Slaw, the Canadian legal blog. The post describe recent developments in law-related eParticipation, such as ePetition, eConsultation, eRulemaking, electronic voting, and voters’ guides that describe ballot propositions, in the UK, EU, and US.

If you know of other recent developments in these areas, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Jones on A User Registration System for Regulations.gov

Gregory D. Jones has published a comment entitled Electronic Rulemaking in the New Age of Openness: Proposing a Voluntary Two-Tier Registration System for Regulations.gov, Administrative Law Review, v. 62, no. 4 (2010), pp. 1261-1286. Here is a summary:

This Comment argues that a voluntary two-tiered registration system that acknowledges the role of interest groups in rulemaking is best suited to meet the [Obama] Administration’s goals for open government. Part I briefly reviews the history of e-rulemaking in the United States, including the recent policies by the Obama Administration. It also considers how the role played by interest groups in rulemaking offers both advantages and disadvantages to agencies, and briefly considers several technical challenges posed by the current e-rulemaking model. Part II describes the European model [represented by the European Commission's Your Voice in Europe eParticipation service, and its Register of Interest Representatives] in more detail and explores the degree to which that model should be modified and imported to the United States. Part III considers the practical implications of importing the European model, focusing on the pros and cons of the proposed system. This Part weighs the perceived benefits of the system against its apparent costs, concluding that the import is worthwhile. In closing, this Comment recommends that the eRulemaking Program conduct an in-depth study and public consultation to further evaluate the costs of a voluntary two-tiered registration system.

Federal Register 2.0: Release of Unofficial Prototype

An updated online version of the Federal Register, called Federal Register 2.0 (FR 2.0), will be introduced on 15 July 2010, at an event at the Office of the Federal Register, in Washington, DC, according to a 12 July 2010 press release issued by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

According to the press release, on 26 July 2010, FR 2.0 will be made available — “as an unofficial prototype” — to the public at FederalRegister.gov.

The press release states that the purpose of the public release is “to gather public feedback,” and that an official version of FR 2.0 could be made public sometime in 2011.

The press release provides the following additional background on FR 2.0:

The concept of FR 2.0 originated with Open Government advocates, and was later advanced by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In technology terms, FR 2.0 uses the bulk XML from GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) to present regulatory material in new configurations. The applications on the site are built from open source code, which will be returned to the open source community for unrestricted use in other applications. [...]

The FR 2.0 web site will be similar to a daily web newspaper, with a clear layout and new tools to guide readers to the most popular topics and relevant documents. The site will display individual news sections for Money, Environment, World, Science & Technology, Business & Industry, and Health & Public Welfare. FR 2.0 will have greatly improved navigation and search tools and will highlight each agency’s significant rules. The new web site takes advantage of social media and integrates seamlessly with Regulations.gov and the Unified Agenda to make it easy for users to submit comments directly into the official e-Rulemaking docket, and view the history of rulemaking activity through a regulatory timeline.

HT @AdvertisingLaw and beSpacific.

eRulemaking and the Administrative Conference of the United States

eRulemaking ranks high among the priorities of the newly revived Administrative Conference of the United States, according to the written testimony of Conference Chair Paul R. Verkuil, at the hearing on the Conference held by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (20 May 2010) (video) (written testimony).

In his written testimony President Verkuil said the following about eRulemaking, including references to Regulations.gov, the main official U.S. eRulemaking service, and to the report of the ABA Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice, Committee on the Status & Future of Federal e-Rulemaking and the Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative, entitled Achieving the Potential: The Future of Federal E-Rulemaking (2008):

The Information Age clearly is having a great impact on the ability to “promote more effective public participation and efficiency in the rulemaking process” (5 U.S.C. §591). The use of Internet platforms in rulemaking has transformed the rulemaking process. The changes ushered in by the E-Government Act of 2002, including the federal government’s central portal for public participation in rulemaking, www.regulations.gov, have great potential for democratizing the rulemaking process, but they also carried risks and special legal problems that did not exist when rulemaking dockets were paper files in agency basements. A recent ABA report specifically recognized that ACUS could play a pivotal role in this regard. The White House’s open government initiative, which emphasized transparency and participation, should also be a central player in our rulemaking efforts.

In his written testimony, President Verkuil quoted the following language from the ABA report:

Historically, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) provided agencies with data, assessment and recommendations about their processes that were difficult for them otherwise to obtain. Current progress towards reviving ACUS represents an opportunity for e-rulemaking to benefit from this same type of expert evaluation and advice.

Click here for information about the Administrative Conference of the United States.

Regulations.gov: New Features

A number of new features have been added to regulations.gov, the U.S. federal eRulemaking service. Click here for a video describing the new features. The new features include:

• an “Exchange” tab, to link to the site’s online forum;
• agency specific RSS feeds;
• a bookmarking tool;
• a browse-by-topic index;
• a “Your Voice in Action” tab, featuring graphic displays about regulations and comments;
• a “What’s Hot” tab;
• new links to information about comment periods that are closing soon, newly posted items, and frequently used items;
• a search wizard;
• two new videos: one on searching, and one on submitting comments.

Note: As of 30 January 2010, the new features did not display in the Google Chrome browser. I notified the eRulemaking Program on 30 January 2010. [Update on 2 February 2010: The problem was with my browser; clearing the cache resolved the problem. Thanks to the Regulations.gov Help Desk for guiding me through.]

HT @ecarr42.