A Proposed Interactive Management Forum
Recommended Action
- Establish periodic meetings of ACUS members, Senior Fellows and Agency Representatives focused on providing responses to questions asked by federal members when they solicit advice on an issue which is not addressed in total or in part by existing ACUS publications.
- Representative issues would be very wide in scope ranging from commenting on draft OMB bulletins to strategies for implementing a particular judicial ruling or a recently enacted statute to the development of a long-term strategy for addressing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
The Gap To Be Filled
- Historically the primary work product of ACUS is the production of very informed reports written by noted experts which are subject to a number of detailed and lengthy reviews prior to publication. The quality of the resultant work product is comparable to that accorded to the preparation of material for the Federal Register or a law journal.
- The gap to be filled is that the unique expertise inherent in ACUS is not being used to its fullest in addressing many issues its members confront on a daily basis.
Implementation
- ACUS would develop a six-month schedule which would identify the host agency for each session and the issue to be addressed at each meeting. The implementing guidance would also address issues such as the scheduling of the meetings such as, for example, the first Monday of every month. All meetings would be limited to one hour.
- It is envisioned that the host agency for a particular session would hold only one session on a particular topic unless it is decided to continue discussions as a sidebar discussion independent of the presentations included in the aforementioned six-month schedule.
- Particular attention would be accorded to the resource constraints on the affected parties. ACUS would serve primarily as a catalyst; participation either as the host agency or a participating agency would be completely voluntary. The nature of the ultimate product of a meeting would be within the sole discretion of the host agency.
- Attendance at the meetings would be limited to ACUS members, Senior Fellows and agency representatives.
NB
OMB has just requested comments on its proposed revisions to OMB Circular No. A-4: Regulatory Analysis; the preamble to the circular delineates the overall strategy which lead to the proposed circular. There is a sixty-day comment period ending June 6, 2023 with comments to be sent to Regulations.gov.
The ACUS interactive Management Forum could be initiated by one or more of its member agencies sponsoring a discussion forum on one or more of the major initiatives set forth in the aforementioned proposed circular including: distributional analysis, uncertainty and discounting.
