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ACUS makes new recommendations, citing research reports from Professors Cary Coglianese and Christopher Yoo

December 16, 2020

As part of the meeting for the 73rd Plenary Session, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), an independent federal agency charged with recommending improvements to administrative process and procedure, directly references the work of two University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School faculty members in its recommendations concerning Protected Materials in Public Rulemaking Dockets and Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence.

As part of the meeting for the 73rd Plenary Session, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), an independent federal agency charged with recommending improvements to administrative process and procedure, directly references the work of two University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School faculty members in its recommendations concerning Protected Materials in Public Rulemaking Dockets and Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence.

The project on Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence investigated how agencies can best ensure due process, promote transparency, and protect against the possibility of bias in their uses of artificial intelligence. Recommendations for the project draws directly from research produced by Cary Coglianese, Edward B. Shils Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Penn Program on Regulation, in his A Framework for Governmental Use of Machine Learning. The report explores the limits of human decision-making and how a calculated approach to integrating machine learning algorithms across government entities may enhance and improve current systems in place.

ACUS’s project on Protected Materials in Public Rulemaking builds on previous Recommendation 2013-4 by studying practices agencies use to balance transparency and confidentiality in rulemaking, such as disclosing aggregate data without compromising the underlying information’s confidentiality and redacting protected information. The recommendations for the project come from research produced by Christopher Yoo, John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science and Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition. His work, Protected Materials in Public Rulemaking Dockets, explores and analyzes how agencies can best balance the broad commitment to openness and transparency reflected in federal law with the duty to protect confidential business information and personally identifiable information against improper disclosure.

More detailed information on the 73rd ACUS Plenary Session can be found on the ACUS Events page.