/rulemaking

A project to pull and merge various data on US federal agency rulemaking.

Primary LanguageR

This is a project to collect and join various data on US federal agency rulemaking.

Regulations.gov (rule metadata and public comments)

I have collected two datasets from regulations.gov, one for all rules, proposed rules, and notices and a second for all public comments:

1. Metadata for all rules, proposed rules, and notices on regulations.gov (.Rdata,SQL)

name value
agency_acronym FDA
allow_late_comment 0
attachment_count 0
comment_due_date NA
comment_start_date NA
docket_id FDA-1976-N-0020
docket_title ANTIBIOTIC DRUGS/ISOLATION & DIFF OF MICROORGANSM CLI USE
docket_type Nonrulemaking
document_id FDA-1976-N-0020-0005
document_status Posted
document_type Notice
fr_document_id NA
fr_number NA
number_of_comments_received 0
open_for_comment 0
posted_date 1978-07-10T00:00:00-04:00
rin NA
title Part 433 - Exemptions from Antibiotic Certification and Labeling Requirements - Notice of Confirmation of Effective Date

2. Metadata for all public comments on regulations.gov (.Rdata,SQL)

name value
agency_acronym CFPB
allow_late_comment 0
attachment_count 1
comment_due_date NA
comment_start_date NA
comment_text Please accept the attached comments on behalf of the OnlineLenders Alliance regarding BCFP Trial Disclosure Programs Docket No. CFPB-2018-0023 Thank You Michael Day Policy Director Online Lenders Alliance
docket_id CFPB-2018-0023
docket_title Policy to Encourage Trial Disclosure Programs
docket_type Nonrulemaking
document_id CFPB-2018-0023-0006
document_status Posted
document_type Public Submission
posted_date 2018-10-11T00:00:00-04:00
submitter_name Michael Day
title Comment Submitted by Michael Day, OLA
rin NA
organization OLA

Both tables are also available in SQL (instructions for using SQL)

For example, to get metadata for all CFPB rules:

SELECT * FROM rules WHERE agency_acronym = 'CFPB')

and all comments on those rules (including those without attachments):

SELECT * FROM comments WHERE agency_acronym = 'CFPB')

In R, you can query SQL databases with the DBI and RSQLite packages:

library(DBI)
library(RSQLite)

con <- DBI::dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), here::here("db", "regs_dot_gov.sqlite"))

# results for a comment, CFPB-2018-0023-0006
dbGetQuery(con, "SELECT * FROM comments WHERE docket_id = 'CFPB-2018-0023-0006'")

Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions

 [1] "ABSTRACT"                
 [2] "ADDITIONAL_INFO"         
 [3] "AGENCY"                  
 [4] "AGENCY_CONTACT_LIST"     
 [5] "ANPRM"                   
 [6] "ANPRMcomment"            
 [7] "ANPRMfedreg"             
 [8] "CFR_LIST"                
 [9] "CHILD_RIN_LIST"          
[10] "COMPLIANCE_COST"         
[11] "ENERGY_AFFECTED"         
[12] "EO_13771_DESIGNATION"    
[13] "FEDERALISM"              
[14] "FINAL"                   
[15] "FINALeffective"          
[16] "FINALfedreg"             
[17] "FINALjudicial"           
[18] "FINALstatutory"          
[19] "FURTHER_INFO_URL"        
[20] "GOVT_LEVEL_LIST"         
[21] "IFR"                     
[22] "IFRcomment"              
[23] "IFReffective"            
[24] "IFRfedreg"               
[25] "INTERNATIONAL_INTEREST"  
[26] "JudicialFinal"           
[27] "JudicialNPRM"            
[28] "LEGAL_AUTHORITY_LIST"    
[29] "LEGAL_DLINE_LIST"        
[30] "LEGAL_DLINE_OVERALL_DESC"
[31] "MAJOR"                   
[32] "NAICS_LIST"              
[33] "NPRM"                    
[34] "NPRMcomment"             
[35] "NPRMfedreg"              
[36] "NPRMjudicial"            
[37] "NPRMstatutory"           
[38] "PARENT_AGENCY"           
[39] "PARENT_RIN"              
[40] "PRINT_PAPER"             
[41] "PRIORITY_CATEGORY"       
[42] "PROCUREMENT"             
[43] "PUBLIC_COMMENT_URL"      
[44] "REINVENT_GOVT"           
[45] "RELATED_AGENCY_LIST"     
[46] "RELATED_RIN_LIST"        
[47] "RFA_REQUIRED"            
[48] "RFA_SECTION_610_REVIEW"  
[49] "RIN"                     
[50] "RIN_STATUS"              
[51] "RPLAN_ENTRY"             
[52] "RPLAN_INFO"              
[53] "RULE_TITLE"              
[54] "SIC_DESC"                
[55] "SMALL_ENTITY_LIST"       
[56] "SNPRM"                   
[57] "SNPRMcomment"            
[58] "SNPRMfedreg"             
[59] "STAGE"                   
[60] "StatutoryFinal"          
[61] "StatutoryNPRM"           
[62] "TIMETABLE_LIST"          
[63] "UNFUNDED_MANDATE_LIST"   
[64] "UnifiedAgendaDate"       
[65] "WITHDRAWAL" 

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (ORIA) Reports

 [1] "AGENCY_CODE"                    
 [2] "ANPRM_COMPLETED"                
 [3] "ANPRM_PUBLISHED"                
 [4] "ANPRM_RECIEVED"                 
 [5] "DATE_COMPLETED"                 
 [6] "DATE_PUBLISHED"                 
 [7] "DATE_RECEIVED"                  
 [8] "DECISION"                       
 [9] "DODD_FRANK_ACT"                 
[10] "ECONOMICALLY_SIGNIFICANT"       
[11] "EXPEDITED_REVIEW"               
[12] "FEDERALISM_IMPLICATIONS"        
[13] "FINAL_COMPLETED"                
[14] "FINAL_PUBLISHED"                
[15] "FINAL_RECIEVED"                 
[16] "HEALTH_CARE_ACT"                
[17] "HOMELAND_SECURITY"              
[18] "IFR_COMPLETED"                  
[19] "IFR_PUBLISHED"                  
[20] "IFR_RECIEVED"                   
[21] "INTERNATIONAL_IMPACTS"          
[22] "LEGAL_DEADLINE"                 
[23] "MAJOR_OIRA"                     
[24] "NPRM_COMPLETED"                 
[25] "NPRM_PUBLISHED"                 
[26] "NPRM_RECIEVED"                  
[27] "REGULATORY_FLEXIBILITY_ANALYSIS"
[28] "RIN"                            
[29] "SMALL_ENTITIES_AFFECTED"        
[30] "SNPRM_COMPLETED"                
[31] "SNPRM_PUBLISHED"                
[32] "SNPRM_RECIEVED"                 
[33] "STAGE"                          
[34] "TCJA"                           
[35] "TITLE"                          
[36] "UNFUNDED_MANDATES"

More about these data in:

Much of the analysis using these data would not be possible without a team of research assistants who have read and coded many thousands of these documents.