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Commenting on notices

Bureau notices open for public comment generally are posted to Notice and opportunities to comment when publicly released, which may occur prior to a notice’s publication in the Federal Register. Depending on the size of the notice, the announcement may come a few days to a few weeks before publication.

All notices requesting public comment and published in the Federal Register are assigned dockets on Regulations.gov . Dockets generally are opened on the day a notice is published in the Federal Register.  If you want to submit a comment on a notice that has been released but not yet published, you can either wait for the published version (preferred) or submit a comment through alternate means described in the ADDRESSES section of the notice.  

The Bureau currently has a policy of generally posting all comments received (by any means specified in the notice) to the docket on Regulations.gov. All comments, including attachments and other supporting materials, will become part of the public record and subject to public disclosure.  

However, the Bureau may, in its discretion, decide not to post or to withdraw certain comments and other materials, or portions thereof, including the following: 

  • Duplicate identical submissions (submitted by the same commenter(s) through different means)
  • Copyrighted material owned by someone other than the submitter
  • Confidential business information (CBI)
  • Spam submissions
  • Threats of harm or violence
  • Comments that are disavowed by the named author or submitter 

Since the Bureau generally posts all comments received, please do not include proprietary information or sensitive personal information (such as account numbers or Social Security numbers), or names of other individuals.  The Bureau does not independently verify identity or contact information provided by a commenter. Nor does the Bureau, as a matter of course, edit or remove any identifying or contact information.

In its rulemakings, the Bureau uses the public comments submitted in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to inform its decision-making by considering the substance of the comments submitted. The General Services Administration, which manages Regulations.gov, provides more information on the data that the Bureau collects on comments submitted through Regulations.gov .

Tips for submitting effective comments