After learning why agencies need power, Gwen and Marc now explain how they use it. This episode breaks down the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice-and-comment process — the backbone of modern rulemaking — through the Department of Transportation’s debate over emotional-support animals on planes. This episode follows the DOT’s 2020 service-animal rule to show how notice-and-comment rulemaking actually works.

Listeners see every stage: publishing a proposal in the Federal Register, inviting and reviewing thousands of comments (including a mass-comment campaign for miniature horses), and crafting a final rule with a detailed preamble explaining the agency’s reasoning. The hosts show why public comments must be substantive, not just popular, and how agencies balance accessibility, safety, and consistency with laws like the ADA.

The discussion extends to the backup-camera mandate and the “ossification” problem — how decades of added procedures have slowed rulemaking to a crawl. Still, notice and comment remains the most democratic tool in the administrative state: it forces agencies to justify decisions, consider real-world impacts, and show their work.

Key Concepts: Notice and Comment Rulemaking | Administrative Procedure Act | Federal Register | Mass Comment Campaigns | Preamble | Ossification | Public Participation Examples: DOT service-animal rule | Miniature horse debate | Backup camera mandate | Benzene rule timeline

Takeaway: Rulemaking may be slow, but it’s democracy in action — transparency and accountability woven into the machinery of expertise.

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