Federal Rulemaking: Selected Agencies Should Fully Describe Public Comment Data and Their Limitations

Format: Federal Government Publication

Role: Senior Research Analyst / Co-Author

Genre: Federal / Adult Education / Public Policy

Publisher: United States Government Accountability Office

Release Date: September 2021

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-103181

ABOUT THE PUBLICATION

We surveyed people whose email addresses were attached to public comments on proposed rules from 10 federal agencies. From 5% to 30% of the people (depending on the agency) said they did not make the comment. At 8 agencies, most of the comments did not have email addresses.

Agencies aren't required to collect information on or verify commenters' identities. While almost all of the agencies we reviewed share comment data online, they didn't always make limitations like this clear when they described the public comment data. We made 10 recommendations to 10 agencies to fully describe comment data available to the public, including limitations.

This product has been distributed to the United States Congress and utilized for their purposes. It is also available online here for public use. The study was conducted in response to a Congressional Request following several high profile events, including a feature on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver which generated a mass influx of commenters regarding the FCC’s Net Neutrality policies.