OMB Publishes "Agency Good Guidance Practices"

Before federal agencies issue guidance documents, they wlll soon have to have them reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget, according to the new OMB "Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices" (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/fy2007/m07-07.pdf).

The new regulation is "intended to increase the quality and transparency of agency guidance practices and the significant guidance documents produced through them."

OMB currently reviews rulemaking but not guidance documents. The new regulation will require agencies to make their policies and practices for issuing guidance documents similar to and more consistent with rulemaking practices. Agencies will be required to be highly transparent with respect to guidance documents. All guidance documents for an agency will have to be listed on a common web page and have a mechanism for public feedback.