A Busy 68th Plenary! (ACUS Update)
The Administrative Conference will host its 68th Plenary Session on December 14th and 15th, 2017. It’s shaping up to be a busy one, with five proposed recommendations going before the Assembly for approval. From the Federal Register notice, these recommendations address the following subjects:
Plain Language in Regulatory Drafting. This proposed recommendation identifies tools and techniques agencies have used successfully to write regulatory documents (including rulemaking preambles and guidance documents) using plain language, proposes best practices for agencies in structuring their internal drafting processes, and suggests ways agencies can best use trainings and other informational resources.
Marketable Permits. This proposed recommendation provides best practices for structuring, administering, and overseeing marketable permitting programs for any agency that has decided to implement such a program.
Agency Guidance. This proposed recommendation provides best practices to agencies on the formulation and use of guidance documents.
Regulatory Experimentation. This proposed recommendation offers advice to agencies on learning from different regulatory approaches. It encourages agencies to collect data, conduct analysis at all stages of the rulemaking lifecycle (from pre-rule analysis to retrospective review), and solicit public input at appropriate points in the process.
Regulatory Waivers and Exemptions. This proposed recommendation provides best practices to agencies concerning their use of waivers and exemptions. It offers recommendations on how agencies should structure their waiver and exemption procedures to increase transparency and promote public input.
The proposed recommendations and links to the various project pages (where the supporting report and other key documents related to each project can be found) are available here. If you would like to submit a comment or RSVP to attend the 68th Plenary Session in person, you can do so at the same link. The meeting will also be webcast on the Administrative Conference’s livestream channel. My previous coverage of these and other projects that were under committee consideration this fall is available here.
This post is part of the Administrative Conference Update series, which highlights new and continuing projects, upcoming committee meetings, proposed and recently adopted recommendations, and other news about the Administrative Conference of the United States. The series is further explained here, and all posts in the series can be found here.