US Opens Portal for Online Comments on Regulations

Judg3 writes " My most recent newsletter from the Center for Democracy and Technology included a link to the newly unveiled Regulations.Gov site that allows individuals to more easily find and comment on proposed rules being considered by federal agencies. Comment on proposed rules ranging from the Secretary of Defense, Coast Guard, Veteran Affairs Admission, to even the Post Office." Here's a newsletter about the site.

Comments

Input requested on "hacker" sentencing

[doorbot.com]

There was a short article on SecurityFocus a few weeks ago... US lawmakers are requesting input from the community regarding "hacker" sentencing. Hopefully the deadline for submissions hasn't passed yet:

online.securityfocus.com/news/2028

Guidelines here:

www.ussc.gov/FEDREG/fedr1202.htm

Re:It's about time!

[Amazing Quantum Man]

It would be even better if there were a similar site for bills being considered. I did a keyword search for CBDTPA and got 0 results... hmmm.

I assume you used Thomas? Try the full name (or even a subset). A search on "Consumer Broadband" brings up S.2048 as the #2 result.

Re:hm.... No

[reallocate]

The Senate and House aren't on the list. They're legislative, not regulatory, bodies.

Written comments..eew

[hfastedge]

I just navigated the site:

Heres one for example:

How to Comment: Submit a Comment on this Regulation
Written comments (preferably in triplicate), regarding both the substantive aspects of the proposed rule and how it may be made easier to understand, may be submitted to the U.S. Customs Service, Office of Regulations and Rulings, Attention: Regulations Branch, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20229. Submitted comments may be inspected at the U.S. Customs Service, 799 9th Street, NW., Washington, DC.

Heres a slightly less archaic link off that regulations.gov site

Submit a Comment on this Regulation
Comments should be submitted to Karen Walker, Chief, Retailer Management Branch, Benefit Redemption Division, Food and Nutrition Service, USDA, 3101 Park Center Drive, Alexandria, Virginia, 22302. Comments may also be datafaxed to the attention of Ms. Walker at (703) 305-1863, or by e-mail to karen.walker@fns.usda.gov. All written comments will be open for public inspection at the office of the Food and Nutrition Service during regular business hours (8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday) at 3101 Park Center Drive, Alexandria, Virginia, Room 408.

BUT im not trying to stir any emotions here, I think that this website will see all these out of date agencies work towards getting themselves fully online. AND hopefully recognizing a gnupg certificate with a high trust rating as BETTER than some bullshit signature on paper (+ the added costs of: snail mail (TTL of like 30 days) AND the time cost of going from print-> electronic (that is once it reaches the org after the snailmail)).

I've had to deal with this bullcrap lately because of moving related circumstances....

Use it!

[sulli]

Comment on the proposed Do Not Call Registry. (I support it!)

Re:Use it!

[ch-chuck]

FR Doc. 02-32649 appears to be "ACTION: Proposed rule; extension of time to file reply comments." You want "67 FR 62667, October 8, 2002) seeking comment on whether it should change its rules restricting telemarketing calls and facsimile advertisements. ", which isn't there to leave comments on. All you can comment on is extention of the time to file comments on a rule you can't comment on (on that website anyway).

Re:Holy Red Tape Batman!

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually work for one of the agencies in question, and we were similarly puzzled about the EPA's role, but evidently the they had the $$ to allocate and desire to deal with this. (Consider they do have some experience with regulations in general).

I don't believe they are 'censoring' anything. AFAIK, they're just a central routing hub for the submissions.

Also, plenty of systems store up data for a set period before processing it. You think anyone would read your instantaneous submission when you send it in at 3 AM?

fine idea, but missing the umph.

[bartolah]

this is a fine idea in theory, in fact I rather like it. But it has two crippling flaws:

1. you should be able to see other comments on the regulation, add to or detract from them, perhaps even vote on them. as of now - you submit and it goes, well, where? some inbox somewhere that's never checked?

2. which leads me to number 2 - like sending mail to your congressman - there's no guarentee it's ever read. unless you're funding a campaign or cosying up to the regulator/agency in question - is your opinion even going to be looked at.

Given those flaws very few people, probably thousands - but still few, will use this site. It could be done much better. But, like so many things the government does, it won't.

Revocation of Airmen Certificates

[Shadow Wrought]

I checked out the FAA section and the very last bit of proposed rulemaking was one whereby the FAA would suspend an Airmen Certificate if the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) deemed that person to be a security threat. And once again under the current regime, it is guilty until proved innocent. Once you have been listed as a security threat, you have to prove that you are not to get your certificate back. They do not have to prove that you are indeed a security threat, only that you are suspected of being such.

And just what constitutes someone as a security threat? Why the TSA says so, thats what. This is one that I think needs some deserved comments.

My detailed comments and suggestions

[netclift]

From my 2600 member DoWire e-list on politics and technology: http://e-democracy.org/do

Some Clift Notes Suggestions

A couple of quick suggestions, the Topical Guide to Regulations and Services should be a profile link from the home page. It is much more than a Related Link. I'd also change the phrase "Search Open Regs" to "List Proposed Regs" that is what what clicking there conveniently does. On the home page, unless you read the full text at right you wouldn't know that the selection tools on the top banner will list proposed regulations - I thought was getting access to existing regulations. I'd switch "Find Regulations" to "List Proposed Regs" and simply say "Search Proposed Regulations" for the search option.

Now my main "what's next" suggestions:

1. What's Popular - Ensure that site usage creates automatic pathways to "What's Popular" lists for all users.

If X proposal is generating high amounts of aggregate traffic or a daily or weekly surge in new traffic, use that data to generate dynamic directories _across the whole of government_ to the information most people are looking for that day/week/year.

This is already being done by the excellent Department of Transportation e-rulemaking web site: http://dms.dot.gov/reports/topdock_rpt.htm This is how people find good shareware all the time: http://download.com.com/3101-2001-0-1.html And how we know what is hot on Yahoo News: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=1 046

Comment statistics should also generate a public display listing the proposed regulations receiving the most frequent comments.

2. Public e-access to public e-comments - I understand that this is a future goal of this effort. I don't know if this is written down anywhere, but key government officials have indicated to me this is a goal.

This is huge. For the first time the business of interest group influence on proposed regulations will gain _timely_ transparency. For the first time across government (the DOT system allows you to see comments already), official decision-making process will have an online interface that will allow the public to then further comment on other public submissions. Let's help the government do this right and then share this version of highly structured online consultation with governments around the country/world.

3. What's New - Personalization and e-mail notification are the most politically powerful tools available for e-government today. Notification doesn't change what information becomes public, so this is more a technical choice.

Information only has value in the political process if you know about it when it can be used to influence a decision, a decision-maker, or the public. It should be a fundamental right of all Americans to track a set of keywords, agencies, or other factors and be notified via e-mail when something of likely interest is newly available on Regulations.gov.

There could be volume restrictions per user to balance the server demand and provide equitable service. This would prevent putting put all the "value-added" commercial tracking services the big lobby groups use from going out of business. Those businesses will politically stop anything that provides too much convenience to those who are willing and able to pay big bucks for any political advantage.

If the UK government can use these tools, why not us? http://www.info4local.gov.uk/emailalert.asp Also, check out the features of these sites: http://www.itpapers.com and http://www.bitpipe.com

End of my main comments ...

Folks at CDT also have comments on what they would like to see next: http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_9.03.shtml

Here is the a news item from the Washington Post on this: U.S. Opens Online Portal to Rulemaking Web Site Invites Wider Participation in the Regulatory Process http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A304 69-2003Jan22.html Can anyone find a press release online about the new site?

Something related: Congress Plans to Slash E-Gov Funding http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/1573661 (Adding more e-regulation features will cost money, hey Congress, help us out here and invest in your own online public services as well.)

A number of very recent articles and presentations by the number one academic e-rulemaking guru, Stuart Shulman: http://www.drake.edu/artsci/faculty/sshulman/NSF/r esearch.htm

For commentary on rules, regulatory reform in general: http://www.ombwatch.org/regs http://www.ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/risk/rsk- 3.cfm

Past DO-WIRE posts on e-rulemaking:
http://www.mail-archive.com/do-wire @tc.umn.edu/msg 00515.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/do-wire@tc .umn.edu/msg 00586.html
http://mail.tc.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=i nd0205&L=do- wire&P=R273

Steven Clift
Democracies Online
http://www.e-democracy.org/do