Ongoing projects

This project examines the wide range of procedures that agencies use when adjudicating cases in programs in which there is no legally required opportunity for an evidentiary hearing. It will offer a set of broadly applicable best practices that account for the diversity of matters that agencies decide through truly informal adjudication and promote fairness, accuracy, and efficiency.

This project will study and, as appropriate, make recommendations to guide Congress in determining the appropriate forum and venue for judicial review of agency rules—with respect to both existing programs and programs established in the future.

This project will examine how federal agencies receive, process, and respond to congressional inquiries made on behalf of constituents who need assistance accessing federal programs or navigating adjudicative and other similar administrative processes. Based on that study, the project will identify best practices for agencies to promote quality, efficiency, and timeliness in their procedures for responding to such inquiries.

This project recommends best practices, such as public engagement and data analysis, that agencies can use to identify unnecessary burdens that members of the public face when they engage with administrative programs or participate in administrative processes. It also recommends strategies agencies can use to reduce unnecessary burdens, such as streamlining processes and digitizing services.

This project will survey strategies—including procedural, technological, personnel, and other reforms—that agencies have used or might use to address backlogs or delays in administrative adjudication. Based on this survey, it will identify best practices to help agencies devise plans to promote timeliness in administrative adjudication, in accord with principles of fairness, accuracy, and efficiency.

This project will study and offer best practices to promote fairness, accuracy, and efficiency in agency processes for providing written guidance in response to requests for advice from members of the public.

This project will study when agencies assert the good cause exemption and recommend best practices for public engagement when agencies find good cause to forgo notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures.

This project will recommend best practices regarding public participation in agency adjudicative proceedings.

This project will recommend best practices for agencies—and Congress, if warranted—to consider in designing and implementing user fees in administrative programs.

This project will study how agencies are using or might use algorithmic tools—including AI and predictive analytics—to detect, investigate, and prosecute current and potential noncompliance with the laws they administer.