How long are public comments kept on file?
How long are public comments kept on file?
Answer
According to the National Archives and Records Administration's General Records Schedule 6.6: Rulemaking Records, public comments are temporary records that may be disposed of after one year, but there is no requirement to destroy comments, so it is conceivable that an agency could have retained them. Summaries of comments should be retained by the rulemaking agency with the rulemaking docket. The Federal Register issue in which the Final Rule was published (if there was one) should contain a summary of comments and may quote from specific comments.
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Gwen Sinclair
Government Documents Librarian
University of Hawaii at Manoa Library