The Federal Register Is (Still) Your Friend

I sometimes forget that those of us who work around the federal government sometimes take for granted practices that may not be obvious. One of the first lessons I learned back in the late 1980s when I took my first job in DC was the importance of keeping up with the Federal Register if you wanted to know the basics about what is going on in the executive branch.

Back then, in the days of paper-only, it wasn’t that easy. It required a not-cheap subscription or access to copies somewhere off-site, like a library. Unless you were interested in only one agency, you had to scan the entire table of contents the old fashioned way – with your eyes – to see if there were any items of interest.

Now, the Federal Register is free and online, and you can search the contents in a few seconds for whatever keywords are important to you. As well, if you’re interested only in CPSC, the agency even has its own webpage for its notices.

I write this because last week CPSC held a hearing on its pending rulemaking on loose, strong magnets. The only people who spoke were consumer advocates and medical professionals, all who supported the regulations that would ban small, loose units with magnetic fluxes greater than 50. No one spoke in opposition despite there being manufacturers who vehemently oppose it.

That’s not because CPSC invited only one side. It notified the public about the hearing four weeks in advance in a September 24 Federal Register notice. Indeed, the draft of the notice was publically available before that, and PSL ran a brief story about the upcoming meeting prior to the notice being published.

This four-week notice didn’t stop at least two of members of industry from taking offence. Tim Szeto of Nano Magnetics October 21 sent an email to CPSC with complaints that included the lack of an agency tweet about the meeting and lack of personal notification.

Zen Magnets was less polite, October 22 tweeting, “Scumbag CPSC…Holds ‘Public Meeting,’ forgets to invite any public.”

Well, the public was invited, four weeks in advance. CPSC doesn’t generally use twitter for meeting notices, typically using that and similar social-media channels for speaking to consumers rather than informing professional stakeholders about regulatory and legal matters. Personal notifications are nice but neither common nor required.

Note that I’m not taking a position on whether the pending magnets rule itself is good or bad. As with all such matters, I remain neutral.

I’m also not saying CPSC is always above criticism about notices of its day-to-day meetings (which are something different than hearings like this one). In the quarter century that I’ve covered the agency (and long before, so I’ve heard), late and after-the-fact notices on the Public Calendar have been an occasional, some would say frequent, source of frustration (although like with the Federal Register, the calendar is easier to track than in the old days because it too is online now.)

What I’m saying is that if you are regulated by CPSC, and especially if there is a pending regulatory matter that might put you out of business, it’s up to you to learn how CPSC communicates its plans, including being able to distinguish between its different channels: twitter, etc. aimed at consumers; Federal Register, etc. aimed at professionals.

It’s not perfect. It’s not always easy. But you should understand it and use it. You should be actively looking, not expecting tweets or phone calls.