^®: CRE Regulatory Action of the Week

Federal Recognition of Interactive Public Dockets
The FDA earns high praise for publicizing the availability of an Interactive Public Docket (IPD) on its transparency blog; please see the FDA Transparency Blog.

As described by Wikipedia, an IPD is "an eRulemaking tool created and managed by" private parties. IPDs "provide the public with the capability to: 1) publicly post data and other materials pertaining to federal proceedings on a continuous basis, including after the close of the Administrative Procedure Act comment period; and 2) post comments on already submitted materials."

CRE has been exploring ways to obtaining federal recognition of IPDs. The FDA has provided a innovative approach to recognizing IPDs; publishing a transparency blog that allows IPD developers to post substantive information about their IPD's and at the same time allows FDA not to take a position with respect to the contents of the IPD.

Among the crucial IPD standards that CRE adheres to are allowing all points of view to be freely discussed while preventing spam, obscenities, and personal accusations or aspersions against any federal official. CRE's IPDs also allow anonymous posting on all legitimate topics, including criticism of CRE. To prevent profanities and other unacceptable posts, CRE reviews each submission prior to posting but only to determine if it violates the basic ground rules described above.

CRE commends the FDA for its important step in improving the transparency of the federal regulatory process and implementing the President's Transparency Initiative.