Regulations.gov comments, weekly

Regulations.gov comments, Nov 2–8, 2026

Tue, 10 Nov 2026 20:47:01 GMT

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:

Docket	Agency	About	Posted	Week before	All time	Comments close	Note
USBC-2026-0628	Bureau of the Census	Decennial Census of the Population of Americans; Proposed Residence Criteria and Propos...	31,763	37,741	147,800	2026-11-03
EBSA-2026-0331	Employee Benefits Security Administration	Electronic Disclosure by Group Health Plans Under ERISA	17,457	8,733	60,851	2026-09-22	81% of the week's posts came on 2026-11-02, so likely a batch
BLM-2026-0133	Bureau of Land Management	National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Production Site Development	7,237	15,696	72,215	2026-11-10
APHIS-2026-1387	Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service	Bayer U.S.-Crop Science: Petition for a Determination of Nonregulated Status for Herbic...	2,999	1	3,000	2026-11-21	new (first comment 2026-10-27)
NHTSA-2026-1981	National Highway Traffic Safety Administration	Notice of Intent to Establish a Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee for Vehicle Li...	2,706	78	4,152	2026-11-10	28x its recent weekly average; 60% of the week's posts came on 2026-11-05, so likely a batch
ICEB-2026-0100	Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau	Optional Practical Training Fees	1,990	1,100	7,733	2026-12-08
USCIS-2026-0364	U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services	Eliminating the Discretionary 60-day Grace Period	1,288	381	28,243	2026-11-11
EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0124	Environmental Protection Agency	Repeal of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating ...	875	13	3,810	2026-11-03	70x its recent weekly average
FDA-2026-P-6878	Food and Drug Administration	Request that the FDA take administrative action to initiate and implement the withdrawa...	826	38	1,458		10x its recent weekly average
USCIS-2026-0397	U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services	Removing 30-Day Refugee Termination Notice	720	86	885	2026-11-14	new (first comment 2026-10-14)
IRS-2026-1189	Internal Revenue Service	Racial Nondiscrimination in Private Schools (REG-119986-25)	666	715	2,637	2026-11-04
IRS-2026-1354	Internal Revenue Service	Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (REG-117199-25)	315	524	22,349	2026-12-02
FDA-2026-N-10738	Food and Drug Administration	Improving patient access to deceased donor islet cells and cell products; Request for I...	300	0	3,300	2026-11-10
NRC-2025-1568	Nuclear Regulatory Commission	Exemptions from Materials Licensing	264	471	793	2026-11-05

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.

Regulations.gov comments, Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2026

Sun, 08 Nov 2026 22:18:15 GMT

Regulations.gov comments, Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2026

70,889 comments were posted across 349 dockets, 1% more than the week before. Most of them went to a few places: the top 3 dockets drew 88% 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. 37,741 comments were posted this week, up from 26,578, and 147,800 so far. The comment period ended Nov 3.

In a random sample of 25, 24 opposed and 1 supported; 16 of them were near-copies of other comments in the sample, which points to form letters.

Nearly all of these commenters oppose the proposed census rule and ask the Bureau to withdraw it. They argue that excluding people by immigration status violates the constitutional mandate to count every resident and would skew apportionment and federal funding. Others object to counting people where they spend winter, which they say would shift seats and money away from colder states. Many also object to dropping race and ethnicity questions, which they say would hurt civil rights enforcement, health planning and the visibility of specific groups. One commenter supports the rule, favoring exclusion of non-citizens from apportionment and a citizenship question, and a couple of commenters also ask for a longer comment period.

National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Production Site Development

Bureau of Land Management. 15,696 comments were posted this week, down from 24,366, and 72,215 so far. Comments are open until Nov 10. 63% of the week's posts came on Oct 27, so this looks like a batch release.

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 the sampled commenters oppose the proposed streamlined permitting for oil and gas production sites in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Most use one of two near-identical form letters, and a shorter variant of the first appears once. They call for a full, project-specific environmental review under NEPA rather than a generic set of conditions, and for cumulative impacts to be studied. They also stress protecting wildlife, wetlands, birds, caribou and the Teshekpuk Lake area, and keeping public input and Tribal consultation. Many add that the Arctic is warming quickly and that further drilling worsens climate change.

Electronic Disclosure by Group Health Plans Under ERISA

Employee Benefits Security Administration. 8,733 comments were posted this week, up from 3,848, and 60,851 so far. The comment period ended Sep 22. 100% of the week's posts came on Oct 29, so this looks like a batch release.

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

Every comment in this sample opposes the proposed rule and asks the Department to withdraw or reconsider it. Commenters say that treating inaction as consent is not real consent for health coverage notices, and they want paper to stay the default with electronic delivery by opt-in. They stress the harm to seniors, rural residents, low-income households, people with disabilities, military members, and those with cybersecurity worries. Many also say the rule is driven by insurer cost savings rather than evidence that people will read and understand electronic documents. Several note that people who like electronic delivery can already opt in, so the current system works.

Also moving

Optional Practical Training Fees (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau) is new: its first comment was posted Oct 8, and 1,100 came in this week.

Exemptions from Materials Licensing (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) is new: its first comment was posted Oct 6, and 471 came in this week.

Racial Nondiscrimination in Private Schools (REG-119986-25) (Internal Revenue Service) jumped to 715 comments this week, 6x its recent weekly average.

Eliminating the Discretionary 60-day Grace Period (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) closes Nov 11. It has 28,243 comments so far, 381 of them this week.

The numbers

The 11 dockets with the most comments posted:

Docket	Agency	About	Posted	Week before	All time	Comments close	Note
USBC-2026-0628	Bureau of the Census	Decennial Census of the Population of Americans; Proposed Residence Criteria and Propos...	37,741	26,578	147,800	2026-11-03
BLM-2026-0133	Bureau of Land Management	National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Production Site Development	15,696	24,366	72,215	2026-11-10	63% of the week's posts came on 2026-10-27, so likely a batch
EBSA-2026-0331	Employee Benefits Security Administration	Electronic Disclosure by Group Health Plans Under ERISA	8,733	3,848	60,851	2026-09-22	100% of the week's posts came on 2026-10-29, so likely a batch
HHS-OASH-2026-0397	Department of Health and Human Services	Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation...	2,520	1,052	7,035	2026-10-22
ICEB-2026-0100	Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau	Optional Practical Training Fees	1,100	996	6,766	2026-12-08	new (first comment 2026-10-08)
IRS-2026-1189	Internal Revenue Service	Racial Nondiscrimination in Private Schools (REG-119986-25)	715	153	2,637	2026-11-04	6x its recent weekly average
IRS-2026-1354	Internal Revenue Service	Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (REG-117199-25)	524	3,348	22,349	2026-12-02
NRC-2025-1568	Nuclear Regulatory Commission	Exemptions from Materials Licensing	471	54	793	2026-11-05	new (first comment 2026-10-06)
NPS-2026-0166	National Park Service	Bicycle Use in Park Areas	443	100	921	2026-11-03
FDA-2026-N-7874	Food and Drug Administration	Considerations for the Regulation of Generative AI-Enabled Medical Devices: Discussion ...	411	0	540	2026-10-20
USCIS-2026-0364	U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services	Eliminating the Discretionary 60-day Grace Period	381	306	28,243	2026-11-11

Sampled summaries: Sonnet 5.5 with a Haiku 5.5 stance check; cost $0.11. 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 2026-11-06). 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.