No Comment: How the Trump administration is shutting down public input on regulations
By Elizabeth Skerry
The Trump administration has shut down a vital mechanism for the public to provide input on regulations, giving corporations and their lobbyists the upper hand.
On August 8, 2025, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) disabled the POST Application Programming Interface (API) for Regulations.gov, the website where public comments on proposed federal regulations are accepted. It’s a website corporate lobbyists know well, but most people unfortunately probably don’t know it exists.
The POST API tool – used by organizations like Public Citizen – enhanced the public’s ability to participate in the federal regulatory process by enabling organizations to inform members and supporters about public comment opportunities through a website or email. Activists are able to submit their comments directly to the relevant agency rulemaking docket on Regulations.gov. This tool simplified the comment process for individual members of the public by allowing a comment submission without visiting Regulations.gov, a website that can be difficult to navigate.
The type of comments that the Trump administration is now stifling through its shutdown of the POST API are called “mass comments.” Mass comments typically start with a template comment drafted by an expert organization focusing on key issues affecting the public. These comments are then shared through software that allows an individual to revise the template comment as they see fit and then to submit directly to the docket in their own name via the organization’s software.
Mass comments are meant to facilitate people having their voices heard in the rulemaking process as they give members of the public the chance to submit a comment via an organization that shares their viewpoints. This eliminates the added time it takes to read a complex proposed regulation and write a comment on it from scratch.
For the Trump administration to take away organizations’ ability to provide this service for their members and supporters to more easily engage in the rulemaking process is disgraceful. This move is in keeping with the Trump administration’s pro-corporate playbook as it will effectively shut out the voices of individuals who will be directly affected by the regulatory rollbacks that corporations are pushing for.
Although more difficult, members of the public can still submit their own comments on proposed agency regulations. Options may vary, but typically include: visiting Regulations.gov to write and submit comments to the appropriate rulemaking docket for the regulation you wish to comment on, writing and mailing your comment to the agency address provided in the rulemaking, and writing and emailing your comment to the email address provided in the rulemaking.
Public Citizen is not staying silent on this important issue. Last month, our organization signed on to a letter from the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS), which we co-chair, along with over 120 groups urging GSA to reinstate the POST API feature on Regulations.gov. Public Citizen is also calling on lawmakers to conduct oversight of GSA’s decision to remove this democratic public input tool.