This Office of the Chairman project, conducted by Professor Cary Coglianese of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, explores the various contexts in which agencies might use machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out regulatory functions. It examines the comparative strengths and weaknesses of both human decision making and AI, seeking to identify areas in which agencies should explore using AI. It...
This project studies the role and responsibilities of agency heads in agencies that perform both enforcement and adjudicatory functions. Though the APA bars investigatory or prosecutorial officials from later serving as or advising an adjudicator in the same case, it explicitly exempts agency heads.
This project studies how federal agencies use and might better use different types of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)—including conciliation, facilitation, factfinding, minitrials, arbitration, the use of ombuds, and especially mediation—to resolve agency adjudications related to their core statutory missions.
Classification of Agency Guidance will develop a classification system to catalog the wide array of guidance agencies issue, which can range from policy manuals to phone calls. It will also identify considerations and circumstances that lead agencies to use one type of guidance instead of another.
The Federal Administrative Procedure Sourcebook is an annotated compilation of the key legal sources—including the Administrative Procedure Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Congressional Review Act, and executive orders—governing nearly every aspect of administrative procedure.
This project catalogs all provisions in the U.S. Code that govern federal judicial review of agency action. Topics include the availability of review, choice of court, administrative exhaustion, limitations periods, and the scope and standard of review. The project will result in a guide for use by Congress, the judiciary, agencies, and the public. Leading experts will serve as project advisors.
The states are laboratories of administrative law. Through this program, the ACUS Office of the Chairman is interested in learning more about how states and localities have innovated in areas of administrative procedure such as rulemaking and enforcement.
ACUS is soliciting information about innovative state- and local-government practices that federal agencies may wish to consider and could feasibly adopt. Examples may include:
The Administrative Conference of the United States has initiated a pilot program under which its staff will transmit to Congress federal judicial and agency adjudicative decisions that identify technical and related problems of consequence in statutes dealing with administrative procedure. Its purpose is primarily to provide legislative drafters with the information they need to ensure future statutes adequately reflect Congress’s intent, and...
Members of Congress from both political parties have introduced a large number of bills designed to amend or overhaul certain aspects of the federal administrative state. Given the significance of these proposed reforms and the large number of bills introduced, the Office of the Chairman of the Administrative Conference felt that it would be useful to compile a list of bills introduced in the last several years.
