A relatedness analysis approach for regulation comparison and e-rulemaking applications

The process of e-rulemaking with participation from the public involves a non-trivial task of sorting through and organizing a massive volume of electronically submitted comments. This research proposes to make use of available Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to help describe the relationship of public comments to policy drafts and deliberations. Based on previous work on regulatory management and comparisons, a relatedness analysis tool has been prototyped and applied to compare drafted regulations with the associated public comments. An example using a drafted regulation on rights-ofway access and the comments received by the Access Board is employed to illustrate the prototyped analysis tool. The drafted regulation and public comments are compared using not only a traditional term match but also a combination of feature matches, and not only content comparison but also structural analysis. This comparison framework helps review of comments with respect to provisions in the draft. Examples of results are shown to illustrate the use and limitations of ICT to support policy making.