Emerging Regulatory Issues

Department of Transportation's Internet-Accessible Rulemaking Dockets Greatly Facilitate Public Participation and Improve Transparency of DOT Rulemakings

Clearly, federal agencies will continue to place more of their activities, including rulemaking activities, on the Internet.

CRE commends the Department of Transportation for its leadership in placing the rulemaking dockets for all of its component agencies on the Internet. DOT calls its electronic docket internet site the Docket Management System (DMS).

By accessing the Docket Management System (https://dms.dot.gov/), anyone can gain access to all the public comments filed with any DOT agency, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in any recent rulemaking proceeding. You can automatically search for and within rulemakings by entering:

• Agency name and the subject of the rulemaking;
• Keywords (such as the name of the commenter, or the date the comment was submitted); or
• The docket identification number for a particular rulemaking

The public may also use the DOT DMS to electronically submit comments on an ongoing rulemaking by clicking on the "Electronic Submission" button.

Also accessible through DMS are DOT-prepared technical background papers and summaries of rulemaking-related meetings that agency personnel have had with non-agency persons during a rulemaking. Certain information that is by law properly protected from public disclosure, such as Confidential Business Information, will not be posted on the DOT site.

CRE believes that the DOT's Docket Management System greatly facilitates public participation in -- and the transparency of -- the Department's regulatory functions.

CRE urges other federal agencies to look to the DOT DMS Web site as a model for placing agencies' rulemaking dockets on the Internet.