ACUS organizes, leads, and participates in various working groups—inter-agency and otherwise—to improve specific administrative programs, facilitate Conference research, and draft best practices for agencies.
Working Groups
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). The amendments also account for…
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…
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. Materials developed by the …
Working Group on Statutory Drafting: Clarifying Statutory Access to Judicial Review of Agency Action
ACUS Recommendation 2021-5, Clarifying Statutory Access to Judicial Review of Agency Action, identified various ways in which statutes governing judicial review of federal agency rules and adjudicative orders create unnecessary obstacles to or overly complicate the process of judicial review. It recommended that Congress enact…
In Recommendation 2013-4, the Administrative Conference offered best practices for preserving, compiling, and certifying records for judicial review of informal rulemaking. The Conference also encouraged agencies to issue guidance to aid personnel in implementing those best practices. The Office of the Chairman convened a Working Group in 2019 to…
The Working Group on Self-Represented Parties in Administrative Hearings is co-led by the Administrative Conference and the Department of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice. The working group’s aim is to identify the challenges posed by self-represented parties in administrative hearings and find solutions to common problems. The working group has met since the Spring of 2015, and participating agencies include the Social Security…
The Model Adjudication Rules are designed for use by federal agencies to amend or develop their procedural rules for all stages of administrative adjudication. Numerous agencies have relied on the Model Rules to improve existing adjudicative schemes, and new agencies, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have relied on them to design their procedures. The Model Adjudication Rules are available below and…