We are learning about Federal regulatory agencies, and how they make new rules.  The first step in that is that the agency publishes a notice about a rule in the federal register, and the parties, you, me, or anyone, can comment on the new rule.  This assignment will have me look at those rules, and comment on one of the rules.

The steps would be:

1. Go to the website federalregister.gov. 

2. Look for the outstanding proposed rules. Use the search features to look around and then find 3 proposed rules that may interest you or that may provide you enough interest as a way to garner up to 5 points for this exercise and 2.5 extra credit points. Don’t just look at today’s proposed rules, but look at least three from the last 6 months or so.    List the 3 proposed rules, and the objective of the rules.

3. Then, find a proposed rule in your field of interest, and read through it. If you can’t understand it, find a different proposed rule. Don’t pick long Irish potatoes or nuclear powered spin generators unless you really know about them.

4. Prepare a comment using the information in the Federal Register. The Rule will usually give you an address or email of where to send your comment.  So, if you don’t want to comment on the new rule to the agency, just send me a copy of what you would send.    If you do want the extra credit, you have to send it to the applicable agency.    Address it as required in Federal Register, and then make a comment.  Address a specific part of the proposed rule (Paragraph 7(b), for example), and then tell the agency why you like or don’t like the rule.

5.  Tell me if you think businesses take advantage of the opportunity to make comments on proposed rules, and why they might do that. 

Tell me what 3 rules you reviewed, and why one interested you and send me the comment you make.  For 2.5 extra points, send the comment to the agency, and send me a copy of the letter or email by 2/28.  For one more extra credit point, pdf me a response you receive from the government.  It might be an auto email, or it may be a written response. 

Note: If you send a one sentence comment, expect 1 point. A good comment may be 2 paragraphs long or more.