December 19, 2005
E-Rulemaking Executive Committee Members:
Recently-signed provisions of the FY06 Treasury/Transportation/HUD
appropriations bill contain restrictions on government-wide funding of
E-Government (E-Gov) Initiatives. This significant legislation requires
agencies to inform and secure Congressional approval to fund E-Gov
initiatives including eRulemaking. The Office of Management and Budget
and the eRulemaking Program Management Office (PMO) are aware of this
and other Congressional appropriations restrictions and are working to
resolve them.
At the current rate of expenditures, the eRulemaking PMO available
funding will expire in mid-February 2006. In response, as Co-Chairs of
the eRulemaking Executive Committee and in conjunction and concurrence
with the OMB E-Gov Administrator, we have decided to allocate remaining
funds to operate and maintain the current Federal Docket Management
System, Regulations.gov. This will ensure continued operations and
service for federal agencies that have already implemented and use
FDMS/Regulations.gov as well as millions of public users of the system.
In addition, in light of the funding shortfall, eRulemaking will suspend
all further agency implementation and development activities, effective
beginning second quarter FY2006. As funding is approved and received,
the PMO will resume agency implementation and system development
activities to the extent that resources allow. The eRulemaking PMO will
keep the eRulemaking Initiative partner agencies apprised of any future
developments as information becomes available.
We recognize that this action will impact E-Gov implementation
plans for several agencies. We will continue to work with those
agencies affected by this decision and renegotiated new migration and
implementation dates.
We regret that this decision had to be made but are doing so in
consideration of the importance of maintaining functionality for all of
our participating agencies and the user community. If you have any
concerns or wish to discuss further please contact us . . . . We look forward
to our continued collaboration on this important government-wide
initiative.
Sincerely,
Kimberly T. Nelson
Co-Chair, eRulemaking Executive Committee
Chief Information Officer and Assistant Administrator
Office of Environmental Information
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Donald R. Arbuckle
Co-Chair, eRulemaking Executive Committee
Deputy Administrator
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
It's unfortunate that work will apparently slow on the development of the e-rulemaking initiative, but it may be a blessing in disguise. The e-Rulemaking project has so far resulted in a clumsy system that is based on but less adequate than what was at the time the second-best system, EPA's e-docket system.
Assuming that some funding will be scraped together in the future to pick back up on the project, maybe the interim period will allow for some re-thinking of the unfortunate direction that e-Rulemaking was headed in.
Posted by Robert Shull