Regulatory Flexibility Act

Agencies' Use of the November 1996 Unified Agenda Did Not Satisfy Notification Requirements Gao ID: GGD/OGC-97-77R April 22, 1997

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed whether federal agencies' entries in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions satisfy the public notification requirements of subsection 610(c) of the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980.

GAO noted that: (1) although there is no legal barrier to an agency using the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions to satisfy the public notification requirements of subsection 610(c), GAO does not believe that agencies' entries in the most recent edition of the Agenda met those notification requirements; (2) of the thousands of entries in the Unified Agenda submitted by 58 federal departments, agencies, and commissions, 3 agencies identified a total of 21 entries as section 610 reviews; (3) none of those 21 entries satisfied all of the requirements of subsection 610(c); and (4) furthermore, the size of the United Agenda and the lack of any index or special section in the document make the entries identified as section 610 reviews difficult for the public to find and comment on.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.