Regulations.gov comments, Nov 2–8, 2026

71,693 comments were posted across 217 dockets, 1% more than the week before. Most of them went to a few places: the top 3 dockets drew 79% of the week's total.
"Posted" means the day the agency made a comment public, not the day it was submitted, and agencies often post in batches, so a big week can be a backlog being released.

Decennial Census of the Population of Americans; Proposed Residence Criteria and Proposed Regulations for...

Bureau of the Census. 31,763 comments were posted this week, down from 37,741, and 147,800 so far. The comment period ended Nov 3.

In a random sample of 25, 22 opposed and 3 supported; 10 of them were near-copies of other comments in the sample, which points to form letters.

Most commenters in this sample strongly oppose the proposed census rule and ask the Bureau to withdraw it. They argue the Constitution requires counting all residents regardless of immigration status, and that excluding noncitizens breaks a long-standing precedent. Many warn that dropping race, ethnicity and sexual orientation questions would hinder civil rights and voting rights enforcement, public health monitoring and planning, and that an incomplete count would cut federal funding and distort representation. Some also criticize the new residence criteria and the short comment period. A few supporters argue that only citizens and lawful permanent residents should count for apportionment and that demographic questions are unnecessary on the census form.

Electronic Disclosure by Group Health Plans Under ERISA

Employee Benefits Security Administration. 17,457 comments were posted this week, up from 8,733, and 60,851 so far. The comment period ended Sep 22. 81% of the week's posts came on Nov 2, so this looks like a batch release.

In a random sample of 25, all 25 opposed; a script found no near-copies among them.

All of the commenters oppose the Department of Labor's proposal to make electronic delivery the default for group health plan notices. They argue that treating a failure to respond as consent is not genuine, informed choice, and that requiring people to opt out to keep paper is a burden. They say seniors, rural residents, low-income households, people with disabilities, and military families would be hurt most. They see the rule as driven by insurer cost savings and say there is no evidence that automatically switched recipients will read and understand the documents as well. They ask the Department to withdraw or reconsider the rule and keep paper as the default, with electronic delivery by opt-in.

National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Production Site Development

Bureau of Land Management. 7,237 comments were posted this week, down from 15,696, and 72,215 so far. Comments are open until Nov 10.

In a random sample of 25, all 25 opposed; 24 of them were near-copies of other comments in the sample, which points to form letters.

All of these commenters oppose the proposed streamlined permitting framework for oil and gas production sites in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. They argue that each project should get its own full environmental review rather than a generic one, and that public input and Tribal consultation must be kept. Many stress that the Arctic is warming fast and that more industrial development would harm wildlife, wetlands, subsistence resources, Indigenous communities and the climate. Some focus on bird habitat and the Teshekpuk Lake area, and one asks for the agency to keep its power to deny, condition or revoke approvals. The comments come from a few repeated form letters plus one detailed individual submission.

Also moving

Bayer U.S.-Crop Science: Petition for a Determination of Nonregulated Status... (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) is new: its first comment was posted Oct 27, and 2,999 came in this week.

Removing 30-Day Refugee Termination Notice (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) is new: its first comment was posted Oct 14, and 720 came in this week.

Notice of Intent to Establish a Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee for... (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) jumped to 2,706 comments this week, 28x its recent weekly average.

Repeal of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric... (Environmental Protection Agency) jumped to 875 comments this week, 70x its recent weekly average.

Request that the FDA take administrative action to initiate and implement the... (Food and Drug Administration) jumped to 826 comments this week, 10x its recent weekly average.

Notice of Intent to Establish a Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee for... (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) closes Nov 10. It has 4,152 comments so far, 2,706 of them this week.

Improving patient access to deceased donor islet cells and cell products... (Food and Drug Administration) closes Nov 10. It has 3,300 comments so far, 300 of them this week.

Eliminating the Discretionary 60-day Grace Period (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) closes Nov 11. It has 28,243 comments so far, 1,288 of them this week.

Removing 30-Day Refugee Termination Notice (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) closes Nov 14. It has 885 comments so far, 720 of them this week.

Bayer U.S.-Crop Science: Petition for a Determination of Nonregulated Status... (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) closes Nov 21. It has 3,000 comments so far, 2,999 of them this week.

The numbers

The 14 dockets with the most comments posted:

Sample summaries: a model labeled each sampled comment and wrote the summary; the counts and the near-copy check are computed by script, and a second model labeled stance again as a check (agreement with the first model is in digests/samples/). Theme groupings are the model's own and approximate. A sample of 25 is not a poll.

Sampled summaries: Sonnet 5.5 with a Haiku 5.5 stance check; cost $0.10. The sampled comment IDs and text hashes are in digests/samples/, so the sample can be redrawn and checked against regulations.gov.
Counts come from the spicy-regs mirror of regulations.gov (data through 2026-11-09). The mirror can run slightly below regulations.gov's own API for busy dockets; see proof/ for the checks. Dockets with under 200 comments in the week are left out of the sections above.