Electronic Rulemaking: Progress Made in Developing Centralized E-Rulemaking System

EPA's response to Congress was dated July 25, 2006, and we received a copy in August 2006. Per the response, EPA agreed with the recommendation. Once the performance measures are developed, EPA will include them in the annual agreements between the e-Rulemaking Initiative and the participating agencies. The letter did not include an estimated completion date. As of September 14, 2006, our liaison at EPA was trying to obtain an estimated completion date. After contacting EPA on January 23, 2007, and February 23, 2007, EPA promised to send information documenting the steps it had taken to implement the recommendation. We received the information on March 12, 2007. The information provided did not indicate that EPA implemented GAO's recommendation. EPA provided copies of the annual agreements for a few agencies and said the language in agreements with other agencies was very similar. The annual agreements did not include performance measures. The agreements stated that EPA would establish performance measures. We contacted EPA again on August 6, 2007, requesting an update, but EPA did not respond. On March 4, 2008, we contacted an official in the e-Rulemaking Program Branch, Office of Information Collection, Office of Environmental Information and requested an update of actions taken by EPA to address the recommendation included in GAO-05-777. He provided an example of the written agreements between EPA and the participating agencies which were used for fiscal year 2008. The agreement includes a section that outlines goals which will be achieved by implementing a range of performance measures related to technology, processes and activities, customer results, and mission and business results. The agreement provides details about each of these performance measures. For example, the Program Management Office (EPA - the managing partner of the e-Rulemaking initiative) will ensure that the system is available to the public and federal agencies 99.9 percent of the time. This measure includes a formula for determining the amount of time the system is available to the public and federal agencies. The 2008 agreements are different than the agreements used in the past. The 2008 agreements list specific performance measures and provide details. The older agreements did not include performance measures - they just stated that the managing partner (EPA) would establish performance measures.