(D) and, at the discretion of the President or the Adminis-
trator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
information provided by that Office in consultations with 
the agency, shall be placed in the docket for the proposed 
rule and made accessible to the public by electronic means 
and otherwise for the public’s use when the notice of pro-
posed rule making is published. 
‘‘(2)(A) If the agency undertakes procedures under 
subsection (c) and determines thereafter not to propose 
a rule, the agency shall, following consultation with the 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, publish a 
notice of determination of other agency course. A notice 
of determination of other agency course shall include in-
formation required by paragraph (1)(D) to be included in 
a notice of proposed rule making and a description of the 
alternative response the agency determined to adopt. 
‘‘(B) If in its determination of other agency course 
the agency makes a determination to amend or rescind 
an existing rule, the agency need not undertake additional 
proceedings under subsection (c) before it publishes a no-
tice of proposed rule making to amend or rescind the exist-
ing rule. 
All information provided to or considered by the agency, 
and steps to obtain information by the agency, in connec-
tion with its determination of other agency course, includ-
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ing but not limited to any preliminary risk assessment or 
regulatory impact analysis prepared by the agency and all 
other information that would be required to be prepared 
or described by the agency under paragraph (1)(D) if the 
agency had determined to publish a notice of proposed rule 
making and, at the discretion of the President or the Ad-
ministrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, information provided by that Office in consulta-
tions with the agency, shall be placed in the docket for 
the determination and made accessible to the public by 
electronic means and otherwise for the public’s use when 
the notice of determination is published. 
‘‘(3) After notice of proposed rule making required 
by this section, the agency shall provide interested persons 
an opportunity to participate in the rule making through 
submission of written data, views, or arguments with or 
without opportunity for oral presentation, except that— 
‘‘(A) if a hearing is required under paragraph 
(4)(B) or subsection (e), opportunity for oral presen-
tation shall be provided pursuant to that require-
ment; or 
‘‘(B) when other than under subsection (e) of 
this section rules are required by statute or at the 
discretion of the agency to be made on the record 
after opportunity for an agency hearing, sections 
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556 and 557 shall apply, and paragraph (4), the re-
quirements of subsection (e) to receive comment out-
side of the procedures of sections 556 and 557, and 
the petition procedures of subsection (e)(6) shall not 
apply. 
The agency shall provide not fewer than 60 days for inter-
ested persons to submit written data, views, or argument 
(or 120 days in the case of a proposed major or high- 
impact rule). 
‘‘(4)(A) Within 30 days of publication of notice of 
proposed rule making, a member of the public may peti-
tion for a hearing in accordance with section 556 to deter-
mine whether any evidence or other information upon 
which the agency bases the proposed rule fails to comply 
with the Information Quality Act. 
‘‘(B)(i) The agency may, upon review of the petition, 
determine without further process to exclude from the rule 
making the evidence or other information that is the sub-
ject of the petition and, if appropriate, withdraw the pro-
posed rule. The agency shall promptly publish any such 
determination. 
‘‘(ii) If the agency does not resolve the petition under 
the procedures of clause (i), it shall grant any such peti-
tion that presents a prima facie case that evidence or other 
information upon which the agency bases the proposed 
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rule fails to comply with the Information Quality Act, hold 
the requested hearing not later than 30 days after receipt 
of the petition, provide a reasonable opportunity for cross- 
examination at the hearing, and decide the issues pre-
sented by the petition not later than 60 days after receipt 
of the petition. The agency may deny any petition that 
it determines does not present such a prima facie case. 
‘‘(C) There shall be no judicial review of the agency’s 
disposition of issues considered and decided or determined 
under subparagraph (B)(ii) until judicial review of the 
agency’s final action. There shall be no judicial review of 
an agency’s determination to withdraw a proposed rule 
under subparagraph (B)(i) on the basis of the petition. 
‘‘(D) Failure to petition for a hearing under this 
paragraph shall not preclude judicial review of any claim 
based on the Information Quality Act under chapter 7 of 
this title. 
‘‘(e) HEARINGS
FOR HIGH-IMPACT RULES.—Fol-
lowing notice of a proposed rule making, receipt of com-
ments on the proposed rule, and any hearing held under 
subsection (d)(4), and before adoption of any high-impact 
rule, the agency shall hold a hearing in accordance with 
sections 556 and 557, unless such hearing is waived by 
all participants in the rule making other than the agency. 
The agency shall provide a reasonable opportunity for 
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cross-examination at such hearing. The hearing shall be 
limited to the following issues of fact, except that partici-
pants at the hearing other than the agency may waive de-
termination of any such issue: 
‘‘(1) Whether the agency’s asserted factual 
predicate for the rule is supported by the evidence. 
‘‘(2) Whether there is an alternative to the pro-
posed rule that would achieve the relevant statutory 
objectives at a lower cost (including all costs to be 
considered under subsection (b)(6)) than the pro-
posed rule. 
‘‘(3) If there is more than one alternative to the 
proposed rule that would achieve the relevant statu-
tory objectives at a lower cost than the proposed 
rule, which alternative would achieve the relevant 
statutory objectives at the lowest cost. 
‘‘(4) Whether, if the agency proposes to adopt 
a rule that is more costly than the least costly alter-
native that would achieve the relevant statutory ob-
jectives (including all costs to be considered under 
subsection (b)(6)), the additional benefits of the 
more costly rule exceed the additional costs of the 
more costly rule. 
‘‘(5) Whether the evidence and other informa-
tion upon which the agency bases the proposed rule 
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