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The Key To Solving Agency Lock-In: Prepublication Regulatory Discussions (Pre Reg), Gwendolyn Savitz

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

Most legally binding administrative rules emerge from the notice-and-comment process, which explicitly requires the agency to consider input from the general public. However, by the time the opportunity for public input occurs, the agency is already substantially locked into its chosen approach and cannot act on new information in the comments. This is true even though its chosen approach was decided upon with input from only those the agency routinely deals with. This process entrenches already established interests and prevents those without existing agency connections from meaningfully contributing earlier in the process.

This problem could be solved by holding public …