Lyndon Dibble
Research Mentor: Devin Judge-Lord
Mentor Department: Not Available, Public Policy
Author(s): Lyndon Dibble, Devin Judge-Lord
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 35
Abstract
Influence in federal agency rulemaking has concerned policymakers and citizens for many years. When Congress delegates policymaking authority to executive agencies, citizens’ voices appear to be even further removed from the laws that govern them. This study examines who has the most influence in agency rulemaking by examining public comments and ranking them on a scale of -2 to 2 by their effectiveness at changing the final rule towards their views. By comparing the proposed rule, the comments requests on the proposal, and the final rule, we identify successful or unsuccessful comments. We also group commenters into coalitions based on their requests, allowing us to create a broader picture of who can move executive agency policy in the direction they want. This will allow future researchers to utilize the dataset to craft more effective policy, such as executive agency rulemaking reform, or predict policy outcomes while the fight is ongoing.
