The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is hiring a Policy Analyst! This is a great opportunity that doesn’t come around very often. From the job advertisement: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is seeking candidates for a policy analyst position in OIRA’s Information Policy […]
If you peruse the D.C. Circuit’s webpage often — and, really, who doesn’t? 😉 — you’ve no doubt noticed an announcement that hasn’t changed for a long time: This may confuse you. First, why is dated “2014-15”? And second, why is an announcement about clerkship hiring of all things given arguably the most prominent placement […]
The federal government recently shut down for three days because the Senate could not pass an appropriations bill with a filibuster-proof majority. In response, President Trump and House Republicans suggested eliminating the filibuster for appropriations bills. However, eliminating such a filibuster would likely have prevented the Senate from considering the failed continuing resolution that Republicans […]
It’s no secret that agencies communicate with the public. Nor is it a secret that the public often listens. It is worth thinking about, however, why the public listens. Sometimes, of course, it is a not a mystery why what an agency says is important. Imagine, for instance, that an agency has authority to waive […]
The Administrative Procedure Act and the question of judicial deference to agency action may be at the center of the typical Ad Law course syllabus. But they are far from the main topics in the story of How Agencies Communicate uncovered in this symposium. Rather than studiously following the notice and comment process to produce […]
Earlier this week, as I was reading the en banc decision in PHH Corp. CFPB, it struck me that the Court cited a large number of law review articles. So for this bonus edition of D.C. Circuit Review – Reviewed, I asked my dutiful research assistants to put together a chart of the articles cited […]
In administrative law doctrine, much significance is placed not only on what agencies say but on the format they use to say it. Interpretations of statutes expressed in legislative rules carry the force of law—i.e., are legally binding on private parties—so must comply with Administrative Procedure Act (APA) notice and comment requirements and usually are […]
The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) tracks the various regulatory reform bills on a pretty regular basis. This is a terrific resource for those interested in understanding the various proposals being considered in Congress. ACUS just posted an updated summary here. Here is the description of the project: In the last several sessions […]
As Elizabeth Porter and Kathryn Watts noted in their contribution to this symposium on how agencies communicate (as well as Michael Herz in his contribution), federal agencies have begun to utilize social media and other channels to explain and promote their preferred regulatory outcomes. Sometimes such communications take place during the public comment period on […]
The most official way for an agency to communicate with the public is through binding legislative rulemaking. But an agency can send out communications much faster, and at higher volume, if it communicates by guidance—that is, by general public statements, nonbinding, giving its current thinking on how it will interpret the law and use its […]
When regulated entities or the public want to know what a regulation means, where do they look? They will, of course, focus on the text of the regulation. But what other sources bear on how regulations apply? In particular, what is the most authoritative source agencies issue to assist in determining the meaning and application […]
That’s the title of a new piece of mine that came out in JAMA this morning. It’s pretty timely: a lawsuit was filed last week challenging CMS’s approval of Kentucky’s waiver, which includes work requirements. More waivers, and more litigation, are sure to come. I’m no fan of work requirements. They’re harsh, stigmatizing, and ineffective. And they will hurt people, […]
Each year the American Constitution Society hosts the Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition in Regulatory and Administrative Law. The list of prior winners is a who’s who in administrative law. Plus there’s a separate student category! The submission deadline of February 4th is quickly approaching. Here are the full details from the ACS website: The American […]
At long last, the en banc D.C. Circuit has decided PHH Corp. v. CFBP. This case — which, of course, we have discussed many times here at Notice & Comment — concerns the constitutionality of the restrictions on the President’s ability to remove the CFPB director (namely, only for “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or […]
For a democracy to function even a little bit like it should, the public needs to know what the government is up to. A robust press is one mechanism. FOIA is another. But the most obvious is for the government just to tell the public about its projects and plans. Unfortunately, while the government has […]