ICF International
Menu Skip
Overview

Rulemaking Support

Homeland Security Support

Program Reinvention

Comment-Response Assistance


Program Evaluation

Training, Meeting Support,
& Conference Planning


REACH Services
""
  

Comment-Response Assistance

Federal, state, and local government agencies annually issue thousands of draft regulations, environmental impact statements, guidance documents, and other reports for public review. Receiving, summarizing, and responding to public comments on these documents is often difficult, time-consuming, and subject to severe time constraints.

The proliferation of e-mail and the Internet is making the public participation process more interactive and increasing the volume of comments and the expectation of commenters. In this environment, government agencies must find innovative ways to address public comments, with organizational success depending on effective implementation of technology.

ICF International has been providing a full range of comment response support to government agencies for more than 20 years on hundreds of public participation processes. Recently, we have synthesized this expertise into our CommentWorksSM software, which makes the comment-response process faster, more effective, and less burdensome for government managers.

Right Nav Menu Selected Projects Selected Clients Selected Projects Selected Clients
Publications
Order a Free Copy of the
Reg Map
Downloads
CommentWorksSM e-Tour
CommentWorksSM Fact Sheet
CommentWorksSM Fact Sheet for Planning and Environmental Assessments
Regulatory Support Services
Get free Flash Player
Get free Acrobat Reader Selected Projects Selected Clients

CommentWorksSM allows managers and staff to do the following:

  • Store and access full-text searchable comments, transcripts, and reference materials
  • Categorize and sort comment excepts by issue
  • Develop and share comment summaries and responses
  • Review, edit, and approve specific comment summaries and responses
  • Track the status of summary and response development and approval
  • Post discussion items among team members

ICF International offers a broad range of services that can be tailored to almost any response effort, including use of our CommentWorksSM software application.

Read more about other ICF International regulatory comment response enterprise solutions.

SELECTED PROJECTS
Back to Top

SELECTED CLIENTS
  • U.S. Department of Energy
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration
  • U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Heath Administration
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Back to Top

DETAILS OF SELECTED PROJECTS

Support for Addressing 7000 Comments for the Occupational Safety and Heath Administration (OSHA)

OSHA received more than 7,000 comments on its ergonomics proposal and plans to publish a final rule within a few months after its formal hearings close. To help meet this imposing challenge, OSHA has engaged ICF International to customize CommentWorksSM, including linking it to image files of comment and attachments; populate it with the comment letters; and help code and organize the comments by specific issues.

Divestiture Comments for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

DOE was able to complete the largest federal divestiture ever— 47,500-acre Naval Petroleum Reserve—in record time, with the help of CommentWorksSM. ICF International's software application allowed DOE to:

  1. understand the public comments
  2. organize DOE responses
  3. track the status of comment summaries and responses over the Internet

Completed comment summaries and responses were exported into WordPerfect to produce a response document. DOE's final document was completed within 30 days of the close of the public comment period, saving a substantial amount of time and money.

Extensive Comment-Response Support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

ICF International supported EPA's Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention Office in developing its several phases of its Risk Management Program regulations. We helped convene eight focus groups that EPA used to obtain input from stakeholders prior to rule development. After the rules were proposed, ICF International summarized comments on proposal and supplemental notice and drafted the 1,800-page Response to Comment document. We also summarized the comments on several related rulemakings.

CommentWorksSM Investment for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

ICF International supported EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) by implementing CommentWorksSM to speed responses to comments on a proposed lead-based paint rule. We worked with the client to define requirements, customized CommentWorksSM by creating an outline editor feature, divided the comment letters by issue, and conducted a hands-on training session.

Rapid Response Comment Support for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

ICF International conducted a highly successful project for NRC in which we implemented CommentWorksSM rapidly for a medical waste rule. As a result of this success, NRC decided to use CommentWorksSM again to track and process over 800 comments and transcripts from four public meetings on a controversial rule. The system's profile feature has been used to quickly prepare briefings on commenter positions for NRC management.

Processing 50,000 Comments on Biotechnology for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

FDA requested public comments on its Biotech 2000 policy regarding biotechnology and food. The agency received more than 50,000 responses in all types of electronic and paper formats, including numerous email form letters. To efficiently tally the results, ICF International is developing a database to facilitate easy data entry and efficient quantitative analysis of the results and will tag particular comments with substantive information for further consideration by FDA.

 

Back to Top

 

 


Contact us via e-mail at info@icfi.com Contact us by phone at 1.703.934.3603