JUNE 4, 2004: JUST OUT OF CURIOUSITY… I notice that I’ve been getting a ton of hits to this article lately. I guess it got mentioned and linked to somewhere, but I don’t know where. Since I follow this topic, I’d love to know where it’s being discussed. I’d appreciate it if someone could tell me where they found the link to this article. E-mail me at: editor@contentious.com. Thanks!
A General Accounting Office report released today sharply criticizes a high-profile Bush Administration e-government initiative, the Regulations.gov site, which was supposed to enable the public to submit online comments on proposed rules from various federal agencies.
Bad site design and lack of appropriate links from agency sites is undermining this effort, said GAO.
Gee, why am I not surprised?
Back in January 2003, when Regulations.gov was launched by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the watchdog group OMBWatch observed that the site wasn’t really providing a significantly new or improved service over existing online public comment mechanisms offered by government agencies. It’ll be interesting to see what OMBWatch will say about this new GAO report – be sure to look for that.
On a related note, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups are complaining that the US Forest Service uses a variety of strategies, including spam filters, to dump thousands of legitimate public comments on rulemakings.
I must admit, this brings out the cynic in me. Yes, the public has a right to participate in the rulemaking process. Yes, online options should be available. But I’ve been covering government agencies long enough to know that agency employees usually cannot manage the information stream they already have. Online comments are easily ignored.
In my opinion, if you live in the US and you’re really concerned about a government rulemaking, you should make the time to mail a letter (on paper, yes, remember that stuff?). Even more importantly, attend hearings. Maybe someday online comments will be given fair consideration, but right now I suspect they’re mainly a panacea.
More info: Recent Federal Computer World article on the GAO report.
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