Bill > S252

This bill, known as the Guidance Out Of Darkness Act or GOOD Act, aims to increase transparency by requiring federal agencies to publish all of their guidance documents—which are agency memos, bulletins, notices, or interpretations that set policy or explain rules without carrying the full, legally binding effect of formal regulations—online. Under the legislation, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB, an executive branch office that helps the President manage the federal budget and oversee agency operations) must designate a single centralized website within 90 days where all federal agencies must host their guidance in a searchable, machine-readable format, while also maintaining prominent links to these documents on their own homepages. Furthermore, agencies have 180 days after the bill's enactment to publish any currently active guidance documents, must keep a public archive of any guidance that is later canceled or struck down by a court order, and are exempt from publishing documents that would otherwise be withheld from the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA, a federal law that allows the public to request access to government records). Finally, the bill clarifies that failing to properly post a guidance document does not invalidate the document itself, and it directs the Comptroller General (the head of the Government Accountability Office, which investigates federal spending and performance) to submit a compliance report to Congress five years after enactment.