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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:
- understand the public comments
- organize DOE responses
- 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.
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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.
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