H.R. 9643, Comment Integrity and Management Act

H.R. 9643 would amend the E-Government Act of 2002 to update how agencies manage electronic comments submitted during the rulemaking process. In particular, the bill would require agencies to verify whether electronic comments are submitted by humans and to identify and label mass comments that are identical or substantively identical. It also would require agencies to establish and make public policies regarding the posting and consideration of computer-generated and mass comments. In addition, H.R. 9643 would require the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance on technologies and procedures for verifying human submissions and identifying and managing mass comments. Finally, the bill would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report on computer-generated comments.

Using information from the Administrative Conference of the United States, CBO anticipates that most of the bill’s provisions would codify current practices and policies across the federal government. As a result, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 9643 would have an insignificant cost, mostly for the GAO report. Any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

In addition, enacting H.R. 9643 would affect direct spending by some agencies that are allowed to use fees, receipts from the sale of goods, and other collections to cover operating costs. CBO estimates that any net changes in direct spending by those agencies would be negligible because most of them can adjust amounts collected to reflect changes in operating costs.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew Pickford. The estimate was reviewed by Chad Chirico, Director of Budget Analysis.