Website Revamped During Trump Admin Weakens Public’s Ability to Engage with Regulatory Process
Washington, D.C. — Today, a coalition of public interest organizations urged the General Services Administration (GSA) and the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) to take steps to address the reduced transparency created by the Trump administration’s revamp of GSA’s Regulations.gov website. Democracy Forward sent a letter discussing the challenges created by the new website alongside Public Citizen, the Georgetown Law Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, the National Health Law Program, the National Center for Youth Law (NYCL), Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
In Monday’s letter, the groups detail how the new version of the website—which was conceived but underfunded during the Trump administration—created a more difficult public-facing user experience, as the website lacks functionality that was available previously. Decisions during the prior administration also make it difficult for the public to reasonably use the website’s public API. Because the new Regulations.gov website weakens the public’s ability to engage with federal agency proceedings, it is in tension with the goals of the E-Government Act and the Federal Information Policy Act.
“The Trump administration underfunded the redesign of Regulations.gov and neglected to follow the government’s own Playbook to engage with the public and groups like ours that rely on the website.
“The result is a cumbersome public-facing user experience that makes access to agency rulemaking dockets more difficult. We urge GSA, with the help of USDS, to take immediate steps to ensure the public can reasonably participate in the rulemaking process on Regulations.gov.”
—Samara Spence, Democracy Forward Senior Counsel
