Amid Deregulatory Blitz, Trump Quietly Deletes Key Public Comment Tool

The Trump administration has made it more difficult for consumers, advocacy groups, and small business owners to raise complaints about bad regulations.

On Friday, the General Services Administration—an independent agency that supports the functioning of the government bureaucracy—quietly eliminated a tool known as the POST Application Programming Interface (API) from the Regulations.gov website.

Last Monday, organizations that had previously used the POST system received an email from GSA informing them that "as of Friday, the POST method will no longer be allowed for all users with the exception of approved use cases by federal agencies."

As tech reporter Matthew Gault explained on Friday for 404 Media, which first obtained the email:

POST allowed third-party organizations like Fight for the Future, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Citizen to gather comments from their supporters using their own forms and submit them to the government later.

Regulations.gov has been instrumental as a method for people to speak up against terrible government regulations. During the fight over Net Neutrality in 2017, FFTF gathered more than 1.6 million comments about the pending rule and submitted them all to the FCC in one day by POSTing to the API.

While it is still possible to lodge complaints through the website, Katie Tracy, senior regulatory policy advocate at Public Citizen, says that "the tool offered an easier means for the public to provide input by allowing organizations to collect and submit comments on their behalf."

"Now," Tracy says, "those interested in submitting comments will be forced to navigate the arduous and complicated system on Regulations.gov."

Gault put it more plainly: "The site's user interface sucks. Users have to track down the pending regulation they want to comment on by name or docket number, click the 'comment' button, and then fill out a form, attach a file, provide an email address, provide some personal details, and fight a CAPTCHA."

The GSA has not provided any rationale for why it decided to eliminate the POST system. But Tracy says that making the reporting process more cumbersome is no accident.

"Notice and comment is one of the few opportunities most Americans and small businesses have to shape regulations by telling agency officials how proposed rules benefit or hurt them," Tracy said. "This decision hurts individuals and small businesses–and rewards major corporations and their lobbyists who play the inside game to influence policies outside of the notice and comment process."

"This decision is especially significant amid the Trump administration's efforts to curtail public participation and slash hundreds of safeguards that guarantee clean air and drinking water, safe consumer products, and prevent predatory lending and bank fraud," Tracy added. "It's clear that Trump doesn't want the public weighing in on these dangerous deregulatory initiatives."