IIB 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7528 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 7, 2024 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs 

AN ACT 

To amend section 206 of the E-Government Act of 2002 

to improve the integrity and management of mass comments and computer-generated comments in the regulatory review process, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
2 

HR 7528 RFS

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Comment Integrity 

3 and Management Act of 2024’’. 

4 SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 

5 The purpose of this Act is to help Federal agencies 

6 manage mass and computer-generated comments in the 

7 Federal regulatory process. This should in no way be un8 derstood to discourage mass comments, which are a vital 

9 part of the regulatory process. 

10 SEC. 3. IMPROVING INTEGRITY AND MANAGEMENT OF 

11 MASS COMMENTS AND COMPUTER-GEN12 ERATED COMMENTS IN THE REGULATORY 

13 REVIEW PROCESS. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.— Section 206 of the E–Govern15 ment Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–347; 44 U.S.C. 3501 

16 note) is amended by— 

17 (1) redesignating subsection (e) as subsection 

18 (f); and 

19 (2) inserting after subsection (d) the following: 

20 ‘‘(e) INFORMATION INTEGRITY.— 

21 ‘‘(1) VERIFICATION OF ELECTRONIC SUBMIS22 SIONS.—With respect to each comment accepted by 

23 electronic means under subsection (c), in accordance 

24 with the guidance established by Director in para25 graph (3), the head of an agency shall verify, to the 

26 greatest extent possible, at the time the comment is 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
3 

HR 7528 RFS

1 submitted, whether the comment has been submitted 

2 by a human being. 

3 ‘‘(2) IDENTIFICATION AND MANAGEMENT OF

4 MASS COMMENTS.— 

5 ‘‘(A) IDENTIFICATION OF MASS COM6 MENTS.—With respect to each comment accept7 ed by electronic means under subsection (c) by 

8 the head of an agency, the head of the agency 

9 shall— 

10 ‘‘(i) to the extent practicable, reason11 ably determine whether such comment is a 

12 mass comment; and 

13 ‘‘(ii) in the case that the agency has 

14 made a reasonable determination that the 

15 comment is a mass comment, indicate on 

16 any publicly available copy of the comment, 

17 or comment variations, (through a label or 

18 indicator, and in a machine and human 

19 readable format) that the comment is part 

20 of a mass comment submission; and 

21 ‘‘(B) HANDLING OF MASS COMMENTS.— 

22 Notwithstanding subsection (d)(2)(A), instead 

23 of making available through the electronic dock24 et of the agency each comment identified as a 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
4 

HR 7528 RFS

1 mass comment under paragraph (2), the head 

2 of an agency may— 

3 ‘‘(i) make available through such 

4 docket only a single representative sample 

5 of each such mass comment; or 

6 ‘‘(ii) in the case where mass com7 ments take the form of variations on cer8 tain standardized but not identical lan9 guage the agency make available through 

10 such docket a single copy of one of the 

11 variations of the mass comment. 

12 ‘‘(C) NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS.—In case 

13 in which the head of an agency makes available 

14 through such docket a single representative 

15 sample or a single copy of one of the variations 

16 of a mass comment under subparagraph (B), 

17 the head of the agency shall indicate (through 

18 a label or indicator, and in a machine and 

19 human readable format), on the sample or copy 

20 made available, the number of submissions that 

21 were determined to be identical, or sub22 stantively identical to the sample or copy made 

23 available on such docket. 

24 ‘‘(3) OMB GUIDANCE.— 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
5 

HR 7528 RFS

1 ‘‘(A) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 240 days 

2 after the date of the enactment of this sub3 section, the Director, in consultation with the 

4 Administrator of General Services, shall issue 

5 guidance to the heads of each agency on the im6 plementation of the requirements of this sub7 section. 

8 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS OF GUIDANCE.—The 

9 guidance issued pursuant to subparagraph (A) 

10 shall include recommendations for agencies on 

11 how to best manage comments accepted by elec12 tronic means, including recommendations on 

13 how to do the following: 

14 ‘‘(i) Use technology tools and proce15 dures that verify, to the greatest extent 

16 possible, whether a comment is being sub17 mitted by a human being. 

18 ‘‘(ii) Identify mass comments, includ19 ing how to leverage software tools to iden20 tify whether a comment is a mass com21 ment. 

22 ‘‘(iii) Indicate (through a label or in23 dicator, and in a machine- and human24 readable format), that a comment is a 

25 mass comment. 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
6 

HR 7528 RFS

1 ‘‘(iv) Use new technology to offer new 

2 opportunities for public participation in the 

3 rulemaking process. 

4 ‘‘(C) UPDATES.—The Director, in con5 sultation with the Administrator of General 

6 Services, may update the guidance issued pur7 suant to subparagraph (A), as determined nec8 essary by the Director. 

9 ‘‘(4) POLICIES CONCERNING POSTING AND CON10 SIDERATION OF COMPUTER-GENERATED COMMENTS

11 AND MASS COMMENTS.— 

12 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 

13 after the date of the enactment of this sub14 section, the head of each agency shall establish 

15 a policy with respect to the posting and consid16 eration of computer-generated comments and 

17 mass-comments during the rulemaking process 

18 of the agency that is consistent with— 

19 ‘‘(i) the requirements of paragraph 

20 (2); and 

21 ‘‘(ii) the guidance issued under para22 graph (3). 

23 ‘‘(B) AVAILABILITY OF POLICY.—Not later 

24 than 60 days after the date on which the head 

25 of an agency establishes a policy pursuant to 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
7 

HR 7528 RFS

1 subparagraph (A), the head of the agency shall, 

2 to the extent practicable, post the policy on the 

3 website through which an agency makes com4 ments available pursuant to subsection 

5 (d)(2)(A). 

6 ‘‘(C) UPDATE TO POLICY.—The policy es7 tablished pursuant to subparagraph (A)— 

8 ‘‘(i) shall be updated as necessary to 

9 make such guidance consistent with any 

10 updates to the guidance issued under para11 graph (3); and 

12 ‘‘(ii) may be updated by the head of 

13 the agency, in consultation with the Direc14 tor, as the head of the agency determines 

15 appropriate. 

16 ‘‘(5) EXCEPTION TO TIME LIMITATION FOR IM17 PLEMENTATION.—The requirement described under 

18 subsection (f) shall not apply to this subsection. 

19 ‘‘(6) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

20 ‘‘(A) COMMENT.—The term ‘comment’ 

21 means a submission under section 553(c) of 

22 title 5, United States Code. 

23 ‘‘(B) COMPUTER-GENERATED COMMENT.— 

24 The term ‘computer-generated comment’ means 

25 a comment the substance of which is primarily 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
8 

HR 7528 RFS

1 generated by computer software, including 

2 through the use of artificial intelligence, rather 

3 than by a human being. 

4 ‘‘(C) MASS COMMENT.—The term ‘mass 

5 comment’ means a comment submitted as part 

6 of an organized submission of a large volume of 

7 identical, or substantively identical, comments 

8 submitted by different signatories or entities.’’. 

9 (b) UPDATE TO WEBSITES, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

10 OF AGENCIES.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 

12 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the head 

13 of each agency subject to the requirements of section 

14 206(e) of the E-Government Act, as added by sub15 section (a), shall update any website of the agency, 

16 and any information system of the agency, as nec17 essary to ensure compliance with the requirements 

18 of such section. 

19 (2) REGULATIONS.GOV.—The Administrator of 

20 General Services, acting through the eRulemaking 

21 Program Management Office, shall update Regula22 tions.gov as necessary to ensure compliance with the 

23 requirements of section 206(e) of the E–Government 

24 Act, as added by subsection (a). 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
9 

HR 7528 RFS

1 (3) ERULEMAKING SYSTEM.—The Adminis2 trator of General Services shall update the shared 

3 eRulemaking system on behalf of participating agen4 cies. 

5 (c) GAO REPORT ON COMPUTER-GENERATED COM6 MENTS.— 

7 (1) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 

8 date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller 

9 General of the United States shall submit to the 

10 Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the 

11 House of Representatives and the Committee on 

12 Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 

13 Senate a report on the identification of computer14 generated comments under section 206(e) of the E– 

15 Government Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–347; 44 

16 U.S.C. 3501 note), that includes the following: 

17 (A) Recommendations on how to identify if 

18 a submission under that section is a computer19 generated comment. 

20 (B) Any effect that computer-generated 

21 comments have on the rulemaking process. 

22 (C) The extent to which the public uses 

23 computer-generated comments to participate in 

24 the rulemaking process at the time the report 

25 is submitted. 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
10 

HR 7528 RFS

1 (D) How prevalent computer-generated 

2 comments are at the time the report is sub3 mitted. 

4 (E) How prevalent the Comptroller Gen5 eral anticipates computer-generated comments 

6 will be 5 years after the date on which the re7 port is submitted. 

8 (d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act, 

9 or the amendments made by this Act, may be construed 

10 as affecting the consideration of a mass comment by the 

11 head of an agency during the rulemaking process. 

12 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

13 (1) COMMENT.—The term ‘‘comment’’ means a 

14 submission under section 553(c) of title 5, United 

15 States Code. 

16 (2) COMPUTER-GENERATED COMMENTS.—The 

17 term ‘‘computer-generated comment’’ means a com18 ment the substance of which is primarily generated 

19 by computer software, including through the use of 

20 artificial intelligence, rather than by a human being. 

21 (3) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

22 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg23 et. 

24 (4) MASS COMMENT.—The term ‘‘mass com25 ment’’ means a comment submitted as part of an orVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 May 09, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7528.RFS H7528

ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
11 

HR 7528 RFS

1 ganized submission of a large volume of identical, or 

2 substantively identical, comments submitted by dif3 ferent signatories or entities. 

Passed the House of Representatives May 6, 2024. 

Attest: KEVIN F. MCCUMBER, 

Clerk. 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS