In scoping
Public Agencies & Rulemaking
Regulatory agencies — federal, state, local. They write the rules, issue the licenses, and enforce the laws the legislature passes. The gap between what's in the Code of Federal Regulations and what's happening on the ground is measured in human consequences.
Common accountability gaps in this area
- Rules can be finalized and then understaffed in practice. A rule without enforcement resources can function as a suggestion.
- Complaint intake can be difficult to navigate — phone-tree mazes, PDF-only forms, short windows, demanding documentation requirements.
- Settlements are sometimes signed with no admission of wrongdoing and limited public case record.
- Agencies sometimes rely heavily on regulated entities when drafting rules, raising capture concerns.
- Inspection cycles can stretch from "every year" to "every decade" without formal policy change.
What TASFGA will track
- Rulemaking calendar — proposed → comment → finalized → effective → enforced
- Enforcement ledger — violations cited, penalties assessed, penalties collected, behavior changed
- Complaint-pathway audits — how hard is it, from the citizen side, to file and get a response?
- Staffing trends — agency headcount vs. regulated universe size
- Revolving-door index — staff movement between agency and regulated industry
Why this matters
Legislatures pass laws. Agencies decide whether those laws exist in practice. When an agency is captured, underfunded, or simply tired, the statute on the books is aspirational at best. TASFGA's focus here is on the operational reality — the administrative machinery where law becomes behavior, or doesn't.