HHS/RELIGION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “HHS is refusing to make public more than 10,000 comments on a Trump administration proposal to reduce federal regulations for religious and faith-based groups that could affect access to abortion and care for transgender patients, according to sources with knowledge of the decision.
The agency has instead posted 80 comments — less than 1 percent of all submissions — that overwhemingly back the administration’s anti-abortion policies or attack regulations advanced by the Obama administration, such as a rule forcing health care providers that accept federal funding to provide services to transgender patients.
HHS’ selective disclosure could lead to legal challenges, particularly under the Administrative Procedure Act, and is raising new questions at a time when the agency’s transparency is already under scrutiny. If HHS doesn’t post and address comments on the rule, ‘there may be grounds for an APA challenge for whatever rule comes out of the process,’ said Alison Tanner of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the missing comments three weeks ago.
Under that law, agencies must solicit public comment as part of the rulemaking process. They typically post all comments received through the web site regulations.gov.
HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.”
–Dan Diamond, “HHS holds back critical comments on faith-based rule,” Politico, Dec. 18, 2017 02:16pm