E-Rulemaking will use a centralized docket system

The E-Rulemaking project team by the fall will test a centralized, governmentwide online docket system for letting users get information and comment on proposed federal rules and regulations. The e-government project’s executive committee recently decided to employ a centralized approach, said Kim Nelson, CIO of the EPA. The environmental agency is the managing partner of the Quicksilver project.The project team will test the system with four or five agencies to prepare for a full system launch in early 2005.“Citizens will go to one place to find everything they need about rulemaking,” Nelson said today at the FSI Outlook 2004 conference in Vienna, Va.The centralized docket system will provide all supporting documents for rules and regulations and will let users post comments online and review comments submitted by others.EPA is awaiting approval for the centralized approach from the Office of Management and Budget, which Nelson expects soon. She said OMB supported the approach during the period when EPA was evaluating various strategies for the system.“There are a lot of components to rulemaking that are common to agencies, and that is why this approach will work,” she said.