ACUS Recommendations
Regulatory Analysis Requirements
Over the past several decades, the United States Congress and various Presidents have imposed numerous regulatory analysis requirements on administrative agencies in connection with their rulemaking activities. Some of these requirements are relatively sweeping measures designed to ensure that ... Read more
Midnight Rules
There has been a documented increase in the volume of regulatory activity during the last months of presidential terms.[1] This includes an increase in the number of legislative rules (normally issued under the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) notice and comment procedures)[2] and ... Read more
Immigration Removal Adjudication
The U.S. immigration removal adjudication agencies and processes have been the objects of critiques by the popular press, organizations of various types, legal scholars, advocates, U.S. courts of appeals judges, immigration judges, Board of Immigration Appeals members and the Government ... Read more
Paperwork Reduction Act
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), enacted in 1980 and revised upon its reauthorization in 1986 and 1995, created the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to oversee information policy within the executive branch. The Act requires, ... Read more
Improving Coordination of Related Agency Responsibilities
Many areas of government agency activities are characterized by fragmented and overlapping delegations of power to administrative agencies. Congress often assigns more than one agency the same or similar functions or divides responsibilities among multiple agencies, giving each responsibility for ... Read more
Legal Considerations in e-Rulemaking
Agencies are increasingly turning to e-Rulemaking to conduct and improve regulatory proceedings. “E-Rulemaking” has been defined as “the use of digital technologies in the development and implementation of regulations”1 before or during the informal rulemaking process, i.e., ... Read more
Rulemaking Comments
One of the primary innovations associated with the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) was its implementation of a comment period in which agencies solicit the views of interested members of the public on proposed rules.1 The procedure created by the APA has come to be called ... Read more
Compliance Standards for Government Contractor Employees – Personal Conflicts of Interest and Use of Certain Non-Public Information
The Conference believes that it is important to ensure that services provided by government contractors—particularly those services that are similar to those performed by government employees—are performed with integrity and that the public interest is protected. In that light, the ... Read more
Agency Use Of Video Hearings: Best Practices And Possibilities For Expansion
Since the early 1990s, video teleconferencing technology (“VTC”) has been explored by various entities in the public and private sectors for its potential use in administrative hearings and other adjudicatory proceedings.1
In the last 10 years, advances in technology and carrier ... Read more
Incorporation by Reference
Incorporation by reference allows agencies to comply with the requirement of publishing rules in the Federal Register to be codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) by referring to material published elsewhere.1 The practice is first and foremost intended to—and in fact ... Read more