GOOD Act

More public access to agency guidance

This bill would require each federal agency to post all guidance documents on a single website designated by the OMB Director. The Director would have to pick the website within 90 days of enactment. Agencies would publish guidance in effect on enactment within 180 days and publish new guidance on the date it is issued. Agencies would link to the central site from their main websites, publish guidance as open Government data, and, where practical, optimize documents for search engines. If guidance is rescinded, agencies would keep the rescinded document on the site, mark it rescinded, show the rescission date, and include a court case number if a court ordered the rescission. The bill would broadly define "guidance document" to include memos, notices, bulletins, directives, news releases, letters, blog posts, no-action letters, speeches, and similar nonbinding statements. FOIA exemptions would still apply. The Comptroller General would have to report to Congress on agency compliance within five years. The bill would also say that noncompliance with the Act would not change a guidance document's legal validity or whether Congress may review it.