Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Whoopsie--Was FSA One of the Agencies Which Goofed?

Here's an example of a bureaucratic screwup, along with a somewhat exaggerated story. In sum, a 1996 law required executive branch agencies to send their final rules to Congress, but many appear to have failed to do so. (The law gave Congress the right to disapprove the final rules after being notified of them.)

In theory, the rule isn't effective until sent to Congress.  And, the answer to the question in my title is "yes", both CCC/FSA and NRCS failed to send several of their final rules over, one of which is a payment limitation rule and one an EQIP rule. (See page 20  of the CRS report.) It strikes me as a Mickey Mouse rule, as we used to say in the old days.  If an agency does something which is controversial and could be disapproved by Congress, the thing will have a life of its own.  If it's not that important, then it's bureaucratic routine.  It's not important in itself; Congress is able to read the Federal Register, after all so the appropriate staffers know when the final rule goes out.

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