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Easy way of determining when
comments will be posted; and whether all comments have been posted.
Agencies should not be posting comments that are substantially the
same as one comment. Agencies should not be discounting comments
sent in by the public electonically.
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Integration with the CFR, so
that folks browsing a particular reg could see by some flag (along
the order of Westlaw's KeyCite) that a pending reg or agenda item
could affect the existing reg. Integration with the semiannual reg
agendas.
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Perhaps a simple tutorial in
how to use the docket system to submit electronic comments, how to
view others' comments, etc.
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Identification of whether
scientific or technical studies used or relied upon by the agency or
other commenters have been subject to formal, independent peer
review.
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Sorting tools -- by
commenter, by topic, by subject Quick summary statistics of comments
by type, etc Key word searches Ability to identify form letters and
tease out unique comments among the form responses. Capacity to link
to models and databases used to provide the analytical basis for the
rule.
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The ability to download a
docket in its entirety instead of document by document. Be useable
by non-English speaking persons.
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They need to make sure
people without computers have the same options as those with
Internet access.
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cross agency searches
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-Public access to email
comments -Value added features (what’s new, what’s popular, etc.)
-Personalization, email notifications, etc.
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statistics on who is
anserwing
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Plain language translation
of regulations / changes status of proposed changes (interim rule vs
proposed rule, etc.) and a timeline
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RSS - to deliver comments to
a news aggregator.
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Agency replies to comments.
E-mail or some notice of the final disposition of the issue.
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links to a commenter's
homepage, company or other affiliation. For lobbyists a link to
their filing reports.
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no comment
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I would like to be able to
teach other intelligent, concerned citizens how to use the system
easily, without expecting any technical expertise or great
familiarity with the Internet on their part. I would like the site
to have an easy-to-use feature for enlarging font size along with
other accessibility features. I would like an online chat function
to assist users who wish to comment, in real time. I would like
regular citizens, not just agency staff, legislators, and
lobbyists/activist organizations to be invited to participate in
site development and usability testing.
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the prevision of issues to
be ruled shortly
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personal collected items of
researches
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Electronic notification when
proposed regulations on designated topics are published in the
Federal Register.
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How well our responses are
read. Ratio of readers at government desks to volume of emails.
In-put in the questions is paramount. For example, agriculture
research is dominated by corporate interests. For example, laws
still favor developers.
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A filter to screen out
proposals supported by inaccurate cost-benefit analyses.
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Links to ANPRs, proposed
rules, and rules related to the docket Links to documents related to
the docket (supporting or referenced)
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Not sure, be more specific
about which web site
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Being able to see comments
based on individual or advocacy group.
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Not sure.
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At this time, I have no
response to this question.
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advanced search
capabilities, to sort/screen large volumes of documents/dockets.
Must be able to distinguish between dockets and documents.
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I would like to talk to
someone to find out more about the possible features or functions of
such a system to be able to reply. You may contact me at the phone
numbers or e-mail below, excuse me, next to these words...Mary
Lamielle, Executive Director, National Center for Environmental
Health STrategies, Inc. 1100 Rural Avenue, Voorhees, New Jersey
08043 (856)429-5353; cell (856)816-8820; ncehs@ncehs.org
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Proactive notifications of
ANPR and Unified agenda entries of interest
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Timeline regarding notices,
comments and deadlines in the context of a particular rule or rules.
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I think there should be
experimentation with online dialogues like that allow the public to
learn about a complicated policy issue in an asynchronous
discussion. An example is EPA's public participation policy.
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The primary concern I have
is that relatively few citizens are aware of the existence of online
docket systems. More effort needs to be put into promoting them,
including via email and via links to regulations.gov on other
federal and state sites.
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I don't have time to figure
out what you've got on it now, it's planting season.
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Note: your reference here
to this system is vague--do you mean your web system, which is
subpar at best (no skip logic?), or the proposed federal comment
site?
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Advance notice of
publication of relevant regulations. Ability to forward to other
interested parties.
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How ordinary people can
have more input into government decisions that affect their lives
and the lives of future generations
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list of organizations,
references, or governing authorities cited by proposed rule
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regulatory comments sought
for specific issues or sectors, like small business, preferably
organized by due date.
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No comment at this time.
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The ability to link to the
actual rule notice or the form for direct submission of comments.
Regulations.gov currently does not seem to allow linking below the
generalized welcome or home page.
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No suggestions.
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This task needs to be taken
out of the agencies or the direct involvement of the government.
An outside contractor with a modicum of design skill needs to direct
the process. Since obfuscation is often the goal of Federal
agencies, coming up with a clean design won't be easy.
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Again, making the system
links to Google or other browsers, opens it up to so many more
people.
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performance and reliability!
Make it easy for someone to find what they are looking for and do
what they want to do with little or no knowledge of how the federal
government is structured. In other words, I want to be able to find
rules that are going to have an impact on the things that interest
me without having to know which agencies the rules are coming from.
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tools to analyze the content
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Status reports on rulemaking
proceedings.
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easy navigation. For
example, links saying something like proposed rule other
comments respond to other comments view organizations who have
commented
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Request e-submitters to
include URLs of cited evidence if not included.
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Can't think of any at the
moment.
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Comments boxes such as this
that automatically wrap text. More time to fill out survey -- it
timed out and I had to start over.
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It might be useful to have a
check box for each comment so that a number of comments could be
selected for downloading.
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Email alerts for pertinent
dockets.
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Links to appropriate/other
documents.
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Short summaries of issues
and their status
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Real-time comment on others'
comments.
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The primary function other
than searching capability will be mechanisms to control what may be
an overload of responses.
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see previous comment
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Having the ability to
download documents posted for comment periods is essential and
should be maintained.
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Use of color originals
available always in two forms - one the original, which can be .txt,
.doc, or html, .ppt or whatever the person submits, and another, a
standard pdf.
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Sometimes there are many
repetitive comments that are essentially the same. Could the
comments be organized or sorted to identify those that are
basically carbon copies of each other - such as comparison of text
similarities? This would help in large dockets to read those that
offer real differences.
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Sort by issue Sort by
section of affected regulations Parse comments by issue
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no comment
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Until the day is expanded by
an hour or two ... I probably wouldn't use it. But if I were still
an attorney/advocate rather than an academic, it would be helpful to
see what the enemy was writing from my desktop, rather than
visiting a hearing clerk's office ... So certainly a search-by
commentor function would be useful.
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Links to hearing transcripts
or other background information on the proposed rule. Links to the
agency personnel most knowledgeable about the proposed rule
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Bookmarkability and
linkability of search results is key. An RSS (XML) feed to which
one could subscribe in a newsreader/aggregator to be informed of
additions to a docket or comments in a proceeding, as well as new
proceedings, would be very helpful.
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Links to websites of other
government agencies, NGOs, trade associations and periodicals
covering the subject at hand; e.g., a law firm that I know publishes
on a website called Packaging Law.com. The topics often related to
regulations and rules that FDA is or has worked on. Access to that
kind of point/counter point references would, I think, sharpen the
comments submitted to an agency.
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Previously noted... Auto
email notification/feedback to people who've submitted comments
previously... and... ability to intelligently search the comments
database on specific dockets via means of a search engine, or use
of keyword or topic search capability. TOPIC and other commercial
COTS products are available to support intelligent searching.
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