Communicating Guidance

Federal agencies routinely communicate with the public through “guidance.” Agencies use guidance to explain how they propose to exercise discretionary powers and how they interpret statutes and rules. Guidance comes in many forms: written and unwritten, authoritative and non-authoritative, significant and routine, and directed internally to agency personnel and externally to people outside the government.

ACUS has adopted many recommendations and produced other resources to help federal agencies effectively use guidance, develop guidance documents, and make guidance documents publicly available. This page provides access to individual recommendations, reports, and other resources on the subject.