Blog Viewer

While federal agencies are required by law to allow for public comment on proposed rulemakings, traditionally no such opportunity has been required for guidance documents. Executive Order (EO) 13891 “Promoting the Rule of Law through Improved Agency Guidance Documents” requires all agencies to increase transparency. In response to that EO, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the proposed rule “EPA Guidance; Administrative Procedures for Issuance and Public Petitions” on May 22, 2020.

APGA is engaging in opportunities to work with other trades and build coalitions as we learn the issues and understand the critical players. Therefore, we collaborated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and the Association of American Railroads to file comments to the EPA (attached). The comments generally supported EPA’s efforts to establish a standardized process for issuing guidance and receiving public comment on significant guidance. However, the comments offered a few suggestions on how the process could be improved, including narrowing the exceptions for guidance that must go through public comment and incorporating all guidance documents into the process – not only those that are deemed significant. To view the comments, please go to www.apga.org/comments. 

If you are interested in participating in APGA’s advocacy efforts with the EPA, please consider joining APGA’s new Environmental Task Group. Sign-up here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/APGAEnvTG.

For questions on this article, please contact Erin Kurilla of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at ekurilla@apga.org.