No notice: stealth regulations.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings - Brief article

NEW FEDERAL regulations generally are supposed to go through a "notice and comment" period that allows affected parties and the public to give agencies feedback. But that requirement has loopholes, as the Government Accountability Office explains in a December report.

The biggest loophole is the "good cause exemption," which allows agencies to determine, without oversight, when it would be impractical or harmful to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). From 2003 through 2010, the GAO found, "agencies published about 35 percent of major rides [which have an annual economic impact of $100 million...