Opinion ID: 6938518
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Secretary’s Response to Public Comment.

Text: Plaintiffs also claim that the equity limit was invalid when the Secretary adopted it in 1982 because the Secretary allegedly failed to respond adequately to criticisms of the figure during the rule-making process. The Secretary received numerous comments that criticized the $1500 equity limit. For example, the National Urban League commented that: In setting this standard, the Secretary ignores at least one important factor, namely what minimum value is necessary to assure the ability to retain a car which is in good enough mechanical order to provide satisfactory and safe transportation without constant repair costs. In response to all the comments, the Secretary stated: We stand by our original position. The choice of $1,500 as the maximum equity value for an automobile was based on the data from a Spring 1979 survey of food stamp recipients. We regard the limit of $1,500 equity value in an automobile as reasonable and supportable. 47 Fed.Reg. at 5657. Plaintiffs contend that the Secretary’s brief response to the comments violated the notice and comment provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 553(c). 5 We disagree. An agency must state why the criticisms it received were invalid “where apparently significant information has been brought to its attention, or substantial issues of policy or gaps in its reasoning raised....” Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Comm’n, 547 F.2d 633, 646 (D.C.Cir.1976), rev’d on other grounds sub nom., Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 98 S.Ct. 1197, 55 L.Ed.2d 460 (1978). An agency must give a “reasoned response” in which the agency points to evidence in the record supporting its view. Id.; see also Kenneth Culp Davis & Richard J. Pierce, Jr., I Administrative Law Treatise 312 (1994) (“If a comment criticizes in detail some characteristic of the agency’s proposed rule, and the agency retains that characteristic in the final rule without including in its statement of basis and purpose a relatively detailed response to that criticism, a reviewing court is likely to hold the rule unlawful on the grounds that ... the rule is arbitrary and capricious”). The agency bears the burden of showing that the regulations it formulates are well considered. See St. James Hosp., 760 F.2d at 1467 n. 5 (“[I]t is an agency’s duty to establish the statistical validity of the evidence before it prior to reaching conclusions based on that evidence, not the public’s duty to inform the agency of statistical invalidities in its evidence”). Commentators are not required to supply their own data to refute an agency’s findings. We, however, agree with the First Circuit’s conclusion in Brown that “[g]iven the nature of the comments ... the Secretary’s brief response [was not] so inadequate as to violate § 553(c).” 46 F.3d at 110. Indeed, only one dozen comments were submitted, and they were all brief and general. Id.