Senate committee clears GOOD Act

The Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act, cleared by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday, would require agencies to post every guidance document on regulations.gov.    The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC) on Wednesday cleared legislation that would generally require all federal agencies to publish guidance documents on their issue date to regulations.gov, the U.S. government’s online regulatory repository, and to provide conspicuous links to such documents on the agencies’ websites.
   As amended Wednesday prior to committee advancement, the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act would further require each federal agency to publish any guidance still active 180 days after the bill’s date of enactment.
   Per the bill, the term “guidance document” pertains to an agency statement of “general applicability, other than a rule” that doesn’t have the force and effect of law, and that sets forth policy on a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue, or an interpretation of a statutory or regulatory issue.
   Guidance documents may include memoranda, notices, bulletins, directives, press releases, letters, blog posts, no-action letters, officials’ speeches, or any combination of these, according to the bill text, though that list is not exhaustive.
   A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said it’s not known when the bill could be considered on the Senate floor.
   “We are on immigration right now,” she said.