How Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking Works

After learning why agencies need power, Gwen and Marc now explain how they use it. This episode breaks down the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice-and-comment process — the backbone of modern rulemaking — through the Department of Transportation’s debate over emotional-support animals on planes. This episode follows the DOT’s 2020 service-animal rule to show how notice-and-comment rulemaking actually works.

Listeners see every stage: publishing a proposal in the Federal Register, inviting and reviewing thousands of comments (including a mass-comment campaign for miniature horses), and crafting a final rule with a detailed preamble explaining the agency’s reasoning. The hosts show why public comments must be substantive, not just popular, and how agencies balance accessibility, safety, and consistency with laws like the ADA.

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