Recommendation 2019-1 – Agency Guidance Through Interpretive Rules identifies ways agencies can offer the public the opportunity to propose alternative approaches to those presented in an interpretive rule and to encourage, when appropriate, public participation in the adoption or modification of interpretive rules. It largely extends the best practices for statements of policy adopted in Recommendation 2017-5, Agency Guidance Through Policy Statements, to interpretive rules, with appropriate modifications to account for differences between interpretive rules and policy statements.
Citation: Admin. Conf. of the U.S., Recommendation 2019-1, Agency Guidance Through Interpretive Rules, 84 Fed. Reg. 38927 (Aug. 8, 2019).
The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) exempts policy statements and interpretive[1] rules from its requirements for the issuance of legislative rules, including notice and comment.[2] The Attorney General’s Manual on the Administrative Procedure Act defines “general statements of policy” as agency statements “issued . . . to advise the public prospectively of the manner in which the agency proposes to exercise a discretionary power...
A 2018 Justice Department policy prohibits attorneys from using guidance documents to establish violations of law.
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