EDGI’s new public comments initiative

Every once in a while, I get a question from a researcher about finding public comments for some regulation administered by an executive agency. All public comments, whether submitted electronically or in paper form, are now made available for public viewing in the electronic public docket at Regulations.gov, but that was not always the case. And past comments on proposed regulations, while potentially interesting from a research standpoint, aren’t the real point of the whole commenting process. The real point is that Commenting on proposed regulations is a key part of our participatory democratic process. But this process is often arcane and confusing and takes effort to track the process and even know that a commenting period is open.

Things are about to get much more transparent and understandable. The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) has just rolled out their Public Comments Initiative. They’ve created guides to better understand the entire process, including how to write effective public comments, research recommendations for writing public comments, tracking on public comments, and other ways to engage with and influence government agencies and their regulatory process. And to top it off, they are starting a public policy initiative with suggestions to improve the entire process. Check it out.

Thanks EDGI!

Deborah CaldwellFGI Crosspost