Notice & Comment

How Agencies Communicate

Notice & Comment

Interim-Final or Temporary Regulations: Playing Fast and Loose with the Rules (Sometimes), by Kristin E. Hickman

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 […]

Notice & Comment

How Agencies Should Communicate During Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking

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 […]

Notice & Comment

Involuntary Rulemaking?

As the various entries in this Symposium show, agencies enjoy considerable flexibility in determining whether, when, and how to publicly communicate their enforcement priorities and legal interpretations. But sometimes, through statutes like the Freedom of Information Act, an agency may be forced to reveal things that it would otherwise keep out of the public’s eye. For […]

Notice & Comment

Visual Regulation—and Visual Deregulation, by Elizabeth Porter & Kathryn Watts

Historically, rulemaking has been defined by dense text and linear analysis. Yet, during the Obama administration, a colorful new visual rulemaking universe emerged—one that splashed rulemaking-related images, GIFs, and videos across social media channels. Agencies, interested stakeholders, and President Obama himself used sophisticated visual tools to develop and engender support for—or opposition to—high-stakes federal rulemakings. […]