Office of the Chairman Projects

President Biden reconvened the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable (LAIR) on May 18, 2021, naming ACUS as one of its members.

The Working Group on Model Materials for Alternative Dispute Resolution is co-led by ACUS and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The Working Group brings together federal agency officials to develop model agreements, standards, position descriptions, training and educational resources, and other materials that agencies can adapt as needed for use in their own alternative dispute resolution programs.

In Recommendation 2021-9, Regulation of Representatives in Agency Adjudicative Proceedings, the Administrative Conference of the United States recommended that the ACUS Office of the Chairman “consider promulgating model rules of conduct” consistent with the Recommendation and, in doing so, “seek the input of a diverse array…

ACUS Recommendation 2023-1, Proactive Disclosure of Agency Legal Materials, identifies statutory reforms that, if enacted by Congress, would provide clear standards regarding what legal materials agencies must publish and where agencies must publish them (whether in the Federal Register, on the agency's website, or elsewhere).

This Office of the Chair project, conducted by Professor Cary Coglianese of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, explored contexts in which agencies might use machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out regulatory functions. It examined the comparative strengths and weaknesses of both human decision making and AI, seeking to identify areas in which agencies should explore using AI. It also considered…

This project studies the roles and responsibilities of agency heads in agencies that perform both enforcement and adjudicatory functions. Though the APA bars investigatory or prosecutorial officials from later serving as or advising an adjudicator in the same case, it explicitly exempts agency heads.

This project studied how federal agencies use and might better use different types of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)—including conciliation, facilitation, factfinding, minitrials, arbitration, the use of ombuds, and mediation—to resolve matters related to their core statutory authorities.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has a growing role in federal agency adjudication, rulemaking, and other regulatory activities. In 2020, ACUS's Office of Chair commissioned a report, Government by Algorithm, prepared by a team of researchers at Stanford University Law School and New York University (NYU) School of Law.

At the request of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Office of the Chairman studied the impact of the pilot program in Region I which, according to 20 C.F.R §§ 405.316, 405.331, both requires notice of the ALJ hearing 75 days prior to the hearing date, and closes the evidentiary record five days before the hearing date absent a showing of good cause.  The report reviewed and analyzed SSA’s statute and current regulations, as well…

The Administrative Conference undertook a project to map the contours of the federal administrative adjudicatory process, including both “formal” adjudication conducted under the Administrative Procedure Act and “informal” adjudication. There was no single, up-to-date resource that painted a comprehensive picture of agency adjudications across the federal government. This study aimed to fill the knowledge gap by: