Note: Delivery to regulations.gov is currently unavailable. The Luminate team is evaluating the inclusion of regulations.gov in a possible future release. An Idea is now open in the Ideas portal where you can comment, add needs or details, and upvote if regulations.gov delivery is a need for your organization.
While many action alerts target legislators and other individuals, you can also configure an alert enabling your constituents to submit public comments to federal agencies on regulations, proposals, and other items. Most federal agencies accept public input on such items through web forms, which will be your alert Targets.
With public-comment alerts, you can:
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Involve your constituents directly in the comment process.
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Encourage constituents to communicate with federal agencies on issues critical to your organization.
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Extend the reach of your alerts beyond the legislature.
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Track and report on activism as you do with regular action alerts.
And you can continue to encourage supporters to spread the word and attract others to your website.
Example 1: Client Curtis from an environmental organization would like to encourage constituents to share their thoughts on regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding air quality in Virginia. Curtis creates a new Action Alert. When he reaches the Select Target step, he creates a new Regulations.gov target. On the Regulations.gov site he finds the comment-submission web form for the EPA regulation he is targeting, "Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans in Virginia". He uses it as a reference to enter the web form URL as well as values for any required fields. Curtis continues creating the alert. On the Configure Pages process page, he edits the final design so that it makes sense as an alert targeting a federal agency rather than a legislator.
You create a public-comment alert like a regular action alert, but with a different type of Target: the comment-submission web form for the item that is open to comment.
Note: In some cases you may wish to include legislators as Targets in the same alert, so that they can see comments submitted by constituents. However, it is best to keep your regular alerts separate from public-comment alerts.
Comments are submitted and collected through a web form specific to the regulation or other item, with a date range during which the item is open for comment. You create a Target based on the web form and specific to its URL (which you find at the site). The web forms are hosted on the following sites:
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Regulations.gov - Hosts public-comment web forms for more than 200 federal agencies, including the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Transportation (DOT), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
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FederalReserve.gov - Hosts public-comment web forms for Federal Reserve proposals.
It is strongly recommended that you take some time to explore these two sites and familiarize yourself with how they work.
Example 2: Client Ophelia would like to enable the constituents of her organization to share their thoughts on a proposal that would revise the disclosure requirements for mortgage loans. She creates an Action Alert. At the Select Target step, she chooses to create a new Federalreserve.gov target. On the Edit page she enters the URL from the Federal Reserve site for submitting comments for "Regulation Z - Truth in Lending [R-1340]". Ophelia completes and launches the alert.
Once the alert is launched, Luminate Online takes the constituent fields and comments and posts them to the targeted web form. (Alerts configured with a Regulations.gov or FederalReserve.gov Target post public comments automatically.)