Sponsors (4)
The bill improves public clarity and interagency consistency by requiring prominent, standardized labeling that guidance is nonbinding, at the trade-off of administrative costs and the risk of short-term implementation problems or weakened persuasive power of guidance for regulated parties.
Taxpayers, small-business owners, and state governments will see agency guidance explicitly labeled as nonbinding, reducing confusion about enforceable duties and lowering the risk that private parties are treated as legally obligated by guidance alone.
Federal employees and state governments will benefit from a single OMB implementing guidance (required within 90 days) that standardizes formatting and application across agencies, increasing consistency in how guidance is prepared and interpreted.
Taxpayers and small-business owners will find guidance documents easier to navigate and interpret because agencies must place the nonbinding clarity statement prominently.
Small-business owners and state governments may face greater regulatory uncertainty if prominently labeling guidance as nonbinding reduces the persuasive weight of important interpretive guidance that parties rely on for compliance.
Federal employees and taxpayers will incur administrative costs and staff time as agencies revise existing and future guidance to add the mandated statement and follow new formatting requirements.
Federal employees may face rushed implementation and initial confusion because the 90-day deadline for OMB to issue implementing guidance could produce unclear instructions and inconsistent agency compliance at first.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires agencies to place a standardized "guidance clarity statement" prominently on the first page of certain agency guidance, with OMB issuing implementation rules.
Introduced January 13, 2025 by James Lankford · Last progress January 13, 2025
Requires federal agencies to place a standardized, prominent "guidance clarity statement" on the first page of certain agency guidance documents. The Office of Management and Budget must issue implementing instructions within 90 days of enactment, and agencies must begin using the statement 30 days after OMB issues that guidance. The requirement applies to any guidance an agency issues under the relevant Administrative Procedure Act provision and prescribes the exact text and placement of the statement; the Act does not allocate new funding or create criminal or civil penalties for noncompliance.