Making formal recommendations is one of the primary activities of the Administrative Conference. The Conference’s research and the resulting recommendations are conducted through the Administrative Conference Project Process. The process includes: gathering and selecting ideas for a project, getting Council approval, selecting the researcher, having the researcher’s report considered by a committee, having the selected committee formulate a recommendation, having a committee’s recommendation considered by the Council and then the full Conference membership, and then implementation activities. Recommendations are adopted by the voting members of the Conference at semi-annual plenary sessions.
Recommendations
Regulatory Analysis Requirements
Download- Recommendation number: 2012-1
- Adopted on: June 14, 2012
Over the past several decades, the United States Congress and various Presidents have imposed numerous regulatory analysis requirements on administrative agencies in connection with their rulemaking activities. Some of these requirements are relatively sweeping measures designed to ensure that agencies’ regulations advance legitimate goals, such as Executive Order (EO) 12,866’s requirement that executive agencies...
Midnight Rules
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Midnight Rules
- Recommendation number: 2012-2
- Adopted on: June 14, 2012
- Tags: Congress, Rulemaking
There has been a documented increase in the volume of regulatory activity during the last months of presidential terms.[1] This includes an increase in the number of legislative rules (normally issued under the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) notice and comment procedures)[2] and non-legislative rules (such as interpretive rules, policy statements, and guidance documents) as compared to other periods. This...
Immigration Removal Adjudication
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Immigration Removal Adjudication
- Recommendation number: 2012-3
- Adopted on: August 27, 2012
- Committees: Adjudication
- Tags: Adjudication, Immigration
The U.S. immigration removal adjudication agencies and processes have been the objects of critiques by the popular press, organizations of various types, legal scholars, advocates, U.S. courts of appeals judges, immigration judges, Board of Immigration Appeals members and the Government Accountability Office. Critics have noted how the current immigration adjudication system fails to meet national expectations of...
Paperwork Reduction Act
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Paperwork Reduction Act
- Recommendation number: 2012-4
- Adopted on: June 15, 2012
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), enacted in 1980 and revised upon its reauthorization in 1986 and 1995, created the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to oversee information policy within the executive branch. The Act requires, among other things, that agencies secure OMB approval before collecting information from the public. Since 1995, this has...
Improving Coordination of Related Agency Responsibilities
Download- Recommendation number: 2012-5
- Adopted on: June 15, 2012
- Tags: Congress
Many areas of government agency activities are characterized by fragmented and overlapping delegations of power to administrative agencies. Congress often assigns more than one agency the same or similar functions or divides responsibilities among multiple agencies, giving each responsibility for part of a larger whole. Instances of overlap and fragmentation are common. They can be found throughout the...
Reform of 28 U.S.C. Section 1500
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Reform of 28 U.S.C. § 1500
- Recommendation number: 2012-6
- Adopted on: December 6, 2012
- Committees: Judicial Review
The Administrative Conference of the United States has long had an interest in ensuring appropriate judicial review of Government actions and in considering related questions regarding jurisdiction and forum. For example, the Conference’s seminal Recommendation 69-1 recommended amendment of the Administrative Procedure Act—subsequently enacted by Congress—to waive sovereign immunity and thereby permit citizens “...
Agency Use of Third-Party Programs to Assess Regulatory Compliance
Download- Recommendation number: 2012-7
- Adopted on: December 6, 2012
- Committees: Collaborative Governance
Federal agencies in diverse areas have developed third-party programs to assess whether regulated entities are in compliance with regulatory standards and other requirements. Through these programs, third parties assess the safety of imported food, children’s products, medical devices, cell phones and other telecommunications equipment, and electrical equipment used in workplaces. Third parties also ensure that products labeled as...
Inflation Adjustment Act
Download- Recommendation number: 2012-8
- Adopted on: December 7, 2012
- Committees: Administration and Management
Civil monetary penalties are used by the Congress and federal agencies to enforce and promote compliance with federal laws and regulations by deterring violations. These laws and regulations serve vital public purposes such as ensuring workplace or transportation safety, preserving the environment, and protecting consumers from dangerous products. As the then Deputy Director of the Office of Management and...
Legal Considerations in e-Rulemaking
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Legal Considerations in e-Rulemaking
- Recommendation number: 2011-1
- Adopted on: June 16, 2011
- Committees: Rulemaking
- Tags: E-Rulemaking
Agencies are increasingly turning to e-Rulemaking to conduct and improve regulatory proceedings. “E-Rulemaking” has been defined as “the use of digital technologies in the development and implementation of regulations”1 before or during the informal rulemaking process, i.e., notice-and-comment rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). It may include many types of activities, such as posting...
Rulemaking Comments
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Rulemaking Comments
- Recommendation number: 2011-2
- Adopted on: June 16, 2011
- Committees: Rulemaking
- Tags: E-Rulemaking, Rulemaking
One of the primary innovations associated with the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) was its implementation of a comment period in which agencies solicit the views of interested members of the public on proposed rules.1 The procedure created by the APA has come to be called “notice-and-comment rulemaking,” and comments have become an integral part of the overall rulemaking process.
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