On December 3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a new website called Reg Stat to provide information on proposed and final rulemakings, as well as other information and documents published in the Federal Register.
In the Part I, II and III articles, AGC highlighted several online tools the public can use to access federal rulemaking documents and provide comments. Below is a summary suitable for quick reference.
Federal Register Information
- Regulations.gov contains regulations and rulemaking documents issued by all U.S. government agencies. This website is useful for reading and commenting on proposed rulemakings and reading public comments already submitted to the docket for each proposed rule. For example, you can read the comments that AGC of America submitted to EPA on November 19, 2010 in response to the agency’s proposed rulemaking on the disposal of coal combustion residuals (e.g., fly ash). Simply go to the website and type AGC of America in the keyword search function under “Read Comments” or use the comment ID number EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640-6921.1.
- The Government Printing Office is the official online home of the Federal Register and has a search engine called the Federal Digital Systems. You also can find the Congressional Record and an archive of Congressional hearings on this website.
- The new Reg Stat website provides information on EPA documents published in the Federal Register between 2005 and 2009. EPA will update the information on this website on an annual basis.
- The EPA Rulemaking Gateway provides information on the progress status of "priority" rules under development. EPA will update general information on this website monthly and time-sensitive information on a daily basis. This website also includes a "Get Alerts" page where users can sign up for regular notifications on priority rulemakings that are likely to affect small businesses.
- Final rules, EPA guidance and compliance assistance tools are available on EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov.
- The OMB launched a regulatory “dashboard” on reginfo.gov that discloses information about OMB’s review of draft regulations, including those drafted by EPA.