United States Forest Washington 14th & Independence SW
Department of Service Office P.O. Box 96090
Agriculture Washington, DC 20090-6090
Mr. William Thomas
P. O. Box 27217
Washington, D,C. 20038
Reply To: 1010-2
Date: April 24, 1990
Dear Mr. Thomas:
This responds to your letter of April 10, which I received on April 19. The
day before, I was notified by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that
they were receiving comments from Rainbow Family members in response to the
Department of Agriculture's Paperwork Reduction Act notice on the information
requirements in the draft proposed rule. At that time, I learned to my chagrin
that once the Paperwork Act notice is published, the public may obtain a copy
of the entire proposed rule, not just the portion dealing in information
requirements. I am embarrassed that I did not know this, but I didn't, and, as
a result, I can see why you think I have been misleading in my comments to Jim
Johnson when he was calling on status.
E.O. 12291 requires OMB review of any substantive agency rule prior to its
publication in the Federal Register. Until that review is completed, the rule
is considered predecisional and is not available for public review and
comment. Because I did not realize that the Paperwork Act notice allows the
public access to the entire draft rule, I was informing anyone who inquired
about the group uses rule that it could not be reviewed until it was
published.
Fortunately, Jim Johnson called me late Thursday afternoon (4/19), and I was
able to explain to him what I had just discovered and to apologize for
appearing to deny him access to the rule, which he had a legal right to
obtain. I assured him, as I now assure you, that this was not intentional on
my part. The error occurred because I was not as familiar with the
relationship between the Paperwork Reduction Act process and the regulatory
review process as I should have been. In short, I goofed.
OMB still has not completed its review of the rule. In addition, we were
asked to obtain Department of Justice review of the rule, and that review
not completed either. At this point, I cannot predict when the reviews will
be completed or when we will be able to publish the proposed rule.
In all my communications with members of Rainbow Legaliaison, I have been
forthright and acted in good faith. Unfortunately, out of ignorance of the
paperwork Reduction Act, I appeared to be misleading. I regret this very much,
and I hope that you will accept the error for what it was--an honest
mistake.
(Mrs.) MARIAN P. CONNOLLY
Regulatory Officer
cc: Rainbow Legaliaison
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