Many agencies are failing to comply with requirements regarding guidance they issue that impose requirements on the private sector or the public without going through a regulatory notice and comment period, a report by the Republican side of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has said.
The report followed the committee’s request for information on such requirements that resulted in an initial count of more than 13,000 such documents, plus more on agency websites or online databases. Many agencies were able to produce a complete inventory and most also said they plan to evaluate such documents under two Trump administration executive orders, it said.
“However, many responses to the committee’s inquiry show significant problems with regulatory guidance practices. As an initial matter, many agencies were simply unable to provide a complete response, including several major regulatory agencies like the Department of Interior. After three months, nearly half of all agencies surveyed were unable to provide a complete inventory of guidance documents. Several agencies were unable to produce information for even a single guidance document.”
“The data provided show agencies fail to comply with the Congressional Review Act and applicable executive orders and directives, like Executive Order 12,866 and the Office of Management and Budget’s Good Guidance Bulletin. The data also show some agencies neither understand nor apply this definition of guidance, despite it being issued more than 10 years ago,” it said.
Legislation pending in Congress would require agencies to more fully disclose such guidance.
The report further called on agencies to “develop a culture of transparency and accountability for all regulatory actions, regardless of whether statutorily required notice and comment procedures apply. For those agencies that have not yet done so, the establishment of effective information management, particularly inventorying agency guidance assets, should be the first step.”
