I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7528 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 5, 2024 

Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana introduced the following bill; which was referred 

to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

5 and Management Act of 2024’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. IMPROVING INTEGRITY AND MANAGEMENT OF 

2 MASS COMMENTS AND COMPUTER-GEN3 ERATED COMMENTS IN THE REGULATORY 

4 REVIEW PROCESS. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 206 of the E-Government 

6 Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–347; 44 U.S.C. 3501 note) 

7 is amended by— 

8 (1) redesignating subsection (e) as subsection 

9 (f); and 

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

11 ‘‘(e) INFORMATION INTEGRITY.— 

12 ‘‘(1) VERIFICATION OF ELECTRONIC SUBMIS13 SIONS.—With respect to each comment accepted by 

14 electronic means under subsection (c), under guid15 ance established by OMB in paragraph (4) of this 

16 subsection, the head of an agency shall verify, to the 

17 greatest extent possible, at the time the comment is 

18 submitted, whether the comment has been submitted 

19 by a human being. 

20 ‘‘(2) IDENTIFICATION AND MANAGEMENT OF

21 MASS COMMENTS.— 

22 ‘‘(A) IDENTIFICATION OF MASS COM23 MENTS.—With respect to each comment accept24 ed by electronic means under subsection (c) by 

25 the head of an agency, the head of the agency 

26 shall— 


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1 ‘‘(i) to the extent practicable, identify 

2 whether such comment is a mass comment; 

3 and 

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

5 made a reasonable determination that the 

6 comment is a mass comment, indicate on 

7 any publicly available copy of the comment, 

8 or comment variations, (through a label or 

9 indicator) in a machine and human read10 able format that the comment is part of a 

11 mass comment submission. 

12 ‘‘(B) HANDLING OF MASS COMMENTS.— 

13 Notwithstanding subsection (d)(2)(A), for com14 ments determined to be mass comments pursu15 ant to paragraph (2), the head of an agency, in16 stead of making available through the electronic 

17 docket of the agency each mass comment ac18 cepted by electronic means under subsection 

19 (c), may— 

20 ‘‘(i) make available through such 

21 docket only a single representative sample 

22 of each such mass comment; and 

23 ‘‘(ii) in the case where mass com24 ments take the form of variations on cer25 tain standardized but not identical lanVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Mar 06, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7528.IH H7528

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1 guage the agency may make available 

2 through such docket a single copy of one 

3 of the variations of the mass comment. 

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

5 in which the head of an agency makes available 

6 through such docket a single representative 

7 sample or a single copy of one of the variations 

8 of a mass comment, as authorized under sub9 paragraph (B), the agency shall make available 

10 (through a label or indicator) in a machine and 

11 human readable format, the number of submis12 sions that were determined to be identical or 

13 substantially identical to the single submission 

14 made available on such docket. 

15 ‘‘(3) POLICIES CONCERNING POSTING AND CON16 SIDERATION OF COMPUTER-GENERATED COMMENTS

17 AND MASS COMMENTS.— 

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

19 after the date of the enactment of this sub20 section, the head of each agency, consistent 

21 with the guidance issued pursuant to paragraph 

22 (4) and with the requirements of paragraph (2), 

23 shall establish a policy with respect to the post24 ing and consideration of computer-generated 


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1 comments and mass-comments during the rule2 making process of the agency. 

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

4 than 60 days after the date on which the head 

5 of an agency establishes a policy pursuant to 

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

7 to the extent practicable, post the policy on the 

8 website through which an agency makes com9 ments available pursuant to subsection 

10 (d)(2)(A). 

11 ‘‘(C) UPDATE TO POLICY.—The policy es12 tablished pursuant to subparagraph (A) may be 

13 updated by the head of the agency, in consulta14 tion with the Director, as the head of the agen15 cy determines appropriate. 

16 ‘‘(4) OMB GUIDANCE.— 

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

18 after the date of the enactment of this sub19 section, the Director, in consultation with the 

20 Administrator of General Services, shall issue 

21 guidance to the heads of each agency on the im22 plementation of the requirements of this sub23 section. 

24 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS OF GUIDANCE.—The 

25 guidance issued pursuant to subparagraph (A) 


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1 shall include recommendations for agencies on 

2 how to best manage comments accepted by elec3 tronic means, including recommendations on 

4 how to do the following: 

5 ‘‘(i) Use technology tools and proce6 dures that indicate, to the greatest extent 

7 possible, whether a comment is being sub8 mitted by a human being. 

9 ‘‘(ii) Identify mass comments, includ10 ing how to leverage software tools to iden11 tify whether a comment is a mass com12 ment. 

13 ‘‘(iii) Indicate (through a label or in14 dicator), in a machine- and human-read15 able format, that a comment is a mass 

16 comment. 

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

18 opportunities for public participation in the 

19 rulemaking process. 

20 ‘‘(C) UPDATES.—The Director, in con21 sultation with the Administrator of General 

22 Services, may update the guidance issued pur23 suant to subparagraph (A), as determined nec24 essary by the Director. 


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1 ‘‘(5) EXCEPTION TO TIME LIMITATION FOR IM2 PLEMENTATION.—The requirement described under 

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

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

5 ‘‘(A) COMMENT.—The term ‘comment’ 

6 means a submission under section 553(c) of 

7 title 5, United States Code. 

8 ‘‘(B) COMPUTER-GENERATED COMMENT.— 

9 The term ‘computer-generated comment’ means 

10 a comment the substance of which is primarily 

11 generated by computer software, including 

12 through the use of artificial intelligence, rather 

13 than by a human being. 

14 ‘‘(C) MASS COMMENT.—The term ‘mass 

15 comment’ means a comment submitted as part 

16 of an organized submission of a large volume of 

17 identical, or substantively identical, comments 

18 submitted by different signatories or entities.’’. 

19 (b) INFORMATION SYSTEMS.—On a timetable estab20 lished by the Director, but not longer than 18 months, 

21 the head of each agency shall update their website and/ 

22 or information systems to ensure compliance with these 

23 requirements. The Administrator of General Services, act24 ing through the eRulemaking Program Management Of25 fice, shall update Regulations.gov as necessary to ensure 


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1 compliance with the requirements of section 206(e) of the 

2 E-Government Act, as added by subsection (a). The Ad3 ministrator of General Services shall update the shared 

4 eRulemaking system on behalf of participating agencies. 

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 E15 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. 


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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 (2) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

9 (A) COMPUTER-GENERATED COMMENTS.— 

10 The term ‘‘computer-generated comment’’ 

11 means a submission under section 553(c) of 

12 title 5, United States Code, the substance of 

13 which is primarily generated by computer soft14 ware, including through the use of artificial in15 telligence, rather than by a human being. 

16 (B) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ 

17 means the Director of the Office of Manage18 ment and Budget. 

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

20 or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed 

21 to minimize an agency’s due consideration of mass com22 ments submitted during the rulemaking process. 

Æ 


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