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 13891 “Promoting the Rule of Law through Improved Agency Guidance Documents” (Link to EO: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-10-15/pdf/2019-22623.pdf) requires all agencies to increase transparency. In response to that EO, the EPA published the proposed rule “EPA Guidance; Administrative Procedures for Issuance and Public Petitions” on May 22, 2020 (Link to Federal Register Notice: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-05-22/pdf/2020-11079.pdf )
APGA is engaging in opportunities to work with other trades and build collations as we learn the issues and understand the critical players. Therefore, we collaborated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Rural Electric Cooperative 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.
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