Using Technology and Contractors in the Administrative State

Government agency recommends that other federal agencies follow best practices for automation, notice, and use of private contractors.

Twice each year, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS)—an independent federal agency—issues recommendations for improvements to administrative and regulatory processes. This past June, ACUS published three new recommendations at its 77th plenary session.

These new recommendations address how agencies should use automated technology to interact with the public, provide effective notice of regulatory changes to the public, and manage private contractors in the rulemaking process.

The Regulatory Review invited ACUS staff and outside experts involved in developing these recommendations to share insights on the issues raised by these recommendations and their importance for improving administrative government. The ACUS recommendations highlighted in this series aim to guide agencies using automated tools that dispense information and offer guidance, improve public notice of regulatory changes, and distinguish appropriate roles for private contractors in the rulemaking process.

This series includes contributions from: Joshua D. Blank, University of California Irvine School of Law; E. Donald Elliott, Antonin Scalia Law School; Joshua Galperin, Pace Law School; Kazia Nowacki, ACUS; and Leigh Osofsky, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.