Gov.Exec.com Quotes Farina's Remarks to
House Judiciary Committee

December 2005

Gov.Exec.com-USA, the online business daily targetted at federal government managers, quoted CeRI principal researcher Cynthia Farina in an article reviewing the status of regulations.gov. This developing government website is scheduled to allow users to submit electronic comments in all federal agency rulemakings by the end of fiscal 2007.

Farina's comments came in part from her recent remarks before the House Judiciary Committee. She joined other researchers, administrative law scholars, public interest groups, and agency officials in addressing the Committee about progress and concerns in the regulations.gov project.

The article quotes Farina as questioning "whether making e-rulemaking available online would 'raise expectations about [comment]legitimacy as more people have the opportunity to participate more broadly.' She went on to express concern that "[a]dministrators have not examined 'how we use the [regulations.gov]technology to try to assist the more average member of the public'leave comments'in a way that makes them feel that they have expressed their view [without]getting in the way of the agency's job.'"

Farina, along with Thomas Bruce, Director of the Legal information Institute, Claire Cardie, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Information Sciences Program, and Erica Wagner, Associate Professor in the Hotel School are helping to address this concern. They are working on ways to design the comment interface to help members of the public better underatnd the rulemaking process and, ultimately, submit better comments.

Read the article.