Title 36

SECTION 1213.6

1213.6 Public access to guidance documents.

§ 1213.6 Public access to guidance documents.

(a) We post the cleared document on our centralized guidance portal at www.archives.gov/guidance. The portal contains a searchable, indexed database of our various kinds of guidance along with links to each document and an agency-unique identifier, title, date issued, z-RIN, if applicable, topic keywords, brief summary, date added to the portal, and any status information (for example, that it supersedes a previous guidance document). All guidance currently in effect (including guidance originally issued before April 30, 2020) must appear on the portal; if it does not, it is deemed rescinded and without any effect.

(b) The guidance portal notes that guidance documents lack the force and effect of law on the public, except as authorized by law, executive order, or regulation or as incorporated into a contract, and that the guidance is not legally binding on the public, except as established by such law, regulation, or contract. Each guidance document and web page that contains a listing of guidance must also include an appropriate notice about the force and effect of the guidance.

(c) The guidance portal also includes instructions for how the public can comment on guidance documents that are subject to the informal notice-and-comment procedures described in § 1213.8 and to submit requests that we issue, reconsider, modify, or rescind guidance documents, in accordance with § 1213.10. It also provides contact information for the public to submit complaints that an office is not following the requirements of OMB's Good Guidance Bulletin or is improperly treating a guidance document as a requirement binding on the public.

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