Regulatory Integrity Act of 2016

Regulatory Integrity Act of 2016

(Sec. 2) This bill directs each executive agency to make publicly available on the agency website or in the rule making docket on Regulations.gov a list of pending agency regulatory actions and for each such action:

• the date the agency began to develop or consider the action, its status, an estimate of the date it will be final and in effect, and a brief description of such action;
• a list of any duplicative or overlapping regulatory actions issued by the same or any other agency;
• if a regulatory impact analysis has been conducted, the findings of such analysis, including any data or formula used for purposes of such analysis; and
• a list of each public communication about the action issued by the agency, including the date of the communication, its intended audience, the method of communication, and a copy of the original communication.

Each agency shall publish the information required within 24 hours after such communication is issued and maintain the public availability of such information for at least 5 years after the action is finalized.

Any public communication issued by an agency that refers to a pending agency regulatory action:

• shall specify whether the agency is considering alternatives and accepting comments;
• shall expressly disclose that the agency is the source of the information to the intended recipients; and
• may not solicit support for or promote the action, be sent through the private email account of an agency officer or employee, or include statements of aggrandizement for the agency, any federal employee, or the action.

An agency that communicated about a pending agency regulatory action during the previous fiscal year shall submit to each congressional committee with jurisdiction over the agency's activities, by January 15 of each year, a report indicating:

• the number of pending agency regulatory actions the agency issued public communications about during that fiscal year,
• the average number of public communications issued by the agency for each such action, and
• the five pending actions with the highest number of public communications issued by the agency in that fiscal year and a copy of each such communication.

The report shall be made publicly available on the agency's website.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov