Comment Integrity and Management Act of 2024

A new Section 2 (Purpose) was added stating the Act is meant to help agencies manage mass and computer-generated comments and explicitly that it should not be understood to discourage mass comments, which are described as a vital part of the regulatory process.

The rule of construction was broadened from stating that nothing in the Act 'shall be construed to minimize an agency's due consideration of mass comments' to stating that nothing 'may be construed as affecting the consideration of a mass comment by the head of an agency,' which is a stronger protection covering any effect on consideration, not just minimization.

The standard for identifying mass comments was lowered from 'identify whether such comment is a mass comment' to 'reasonably determine whether such comment is a mass comment,' giving agencies more discretion in making that determination.

Agency policies on posting and consideration of mass comments now must be updated as necessary whenever OMB updates its guidance (a mandatory requirement), in addition to the existing optional update mechanism. The policy must also be consistent with both the identification requirements and the OMB guidance.

The deadline for agencies to update their websites and information systems changed from 'on a timetable established by the Director, but not longer than 18 months' to a firm 'not later than 18 months after the date of enactment,' removing OMB's discretion over the schedule.

The OMB guidance subsection was renumbered from paragraph (4) to paragraph (3), and the agency policy subsection moved from paragraph (3) to paragraph (4). Cross-references were updated accordingly. The word 'indicate' was changed to 'verify' in the technology tools recommendation.

Definitions were consolidated into a single new section (e) at the end of the bill rather than being embedded within individual subsections, and the GAO report section no longer contains its own separate definitions subsection.