SSA sets up e-mail for regulatory suggestions

Technology

SSA sets up e-mail for regulatory suggestions

As the president calls on agencies to streamline its regulatory process, the Social Security Administration has set up an e-mail account to take ideas from the...

Federal News Network Staff

February 1, 2011 11:00 am

1 min read

The Social Security Administration has set up RegsReview@ssa.gov for the public to submit ideas and comments in response to President Obama’s call to modernize the U.S. regulatory system.

“Social Security values the public’s input and wants to provide a meaningful opportunity for people to participate in the regulatory process. I invite the public to share their thoughts and I am excited to hear their ideas,” said Commissioner Michael Astrue in a press release.

Federal Computer Week reports that SSA will review all comments but said it would be unable to respond to all emails individually. The article added that the agency did not specify if the e-mailed comments would be made public.

The email account set-up – what SSA is calling an open government initiative – stems from the president’s Jan. 18 executive order to streamline and simplify federal regulations. In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, President Obama wrote that his administration is “making it our mission to root out regulations that conflict, that are not worth the cost, or that are just plain dumb.”

Under the executive order, agencies have 120 days to submit a preliminary plan to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. This plan will address how the agency will make regulations “more effective or less burdensome.”