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Tell HN: Regulations.gov Comments API is shutting down on Friday
3 comments sadmiralakbar
Subject: Regulations.gov API Date: August 11, 2025 at 10:15:00 AM EDT To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Good morning,

If you are on this distribution list, you have previously been approved to use the POST method for the Regulations.gov API. This is used by third parties to aggregate and electronically submit comments on behalf of a group or constituency.

As of Friday, the POST method will no longer be allowed for all users with the exception of approved use cases by federal agencies. Any attempted submissions will result in a 403 error response.

We apologize for not being able to provide advanced notice. I wanted to reach out to the impacted API key holders as early as possible. We are in the process of updating the references to our POST API on Regulations.gov and https://open.gsa.gov/api/regulationsgov/.

Please note that your groups and constituencies can still submit comments through our web user interface on Regulations.gov.

quietlycoder
Speaking as a non profit, this is extremely bad. Without this functionality, our advocacy tools have essentially broken overnight. My organization would engage with our supports to encourage action on important issues relevant to our mission. Many non profits operate with that same strategy. Click here to submit a comment on this important docket is the gist of it. This is going to silence a lot of voices who won't be willing or able to go through this process manually. Just my two cents as a non profit.
codingdave
> This is used by third parties to aggregate and electronically submit comments on behalf of a group or constituency.

So... lobbyists? Is that who uses this API? I don't have enough knowledge or context of how this is used, when, or by who in order to know if this change is good or bad. I tend to assume everything is bad these days, but more info to clarify it all would be helpful.

SRGFight
This is shocking but not shocking. The Trump Administration has broadly been trying to circumvent democratic processes and weaken federal agencies. Trump's Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative” https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ensu... directs agencies to stop working on existing rulemaking and enforcement efforts, and his Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations directs agencies to repeal rules without going through notice-and-comment processes https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/dire....

At my org, Fight for the Future, we've worked to ensure people can participate in government processes and have their voices heard. The Regulations.gov user interface is really clunky for the average person to navigate, so we find that setting up simpler action pages is helpful in actually engaging the public in these processes.

For reference, here are some examples of comments processes we’ve helped people engage in by setting up action pages with the use of the POST API: * <https://www.ftccomments.com/> * <https://www.stopaiharms.org/> * <https://www.stopdatabrokers.org/> * <https://banfacialrecognition.com/DOJcomments> * <https://www.stopfinancialsurveillance.org/>

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