Handbook·Federal government

How to petition an agency for rulemaking

Guide·Effort several hours to draft·Leverage LOW TO MODERATE·Verified 2026-07-10

The answer

Under Section 553(e) of the Administrative Procedure Act, anyone, no standing or legal representation required, can petition a federal agency to issue, amend, or repeal a rule. The honest grade is low to moderate. The agency is legally required to consider your petition and respond within a "reasonable time," but that phrase has been interpreted inconsistently by courts and is not a hard deadline1. The agency can also simply deny the petition. As with regulatory comments, petitions built on specific legal or technical grounds fare far better than petitions expressing a general policy preference. This is a real legal tool, sometimes the first step toward a lawsuit if an agency unreasonably delays or denies, but it is not a fast or reliable way to force a new rule.

Before you go

  • Confirm which agency actually has jurisdiction over the rule you want changed, issued, or repealed. Petitions sent to the wrong office simply get forwarded or ignored longer.
  • Check whether that agency has a specific petition process and address. Some, like EPA, have a dedicated petitions office and a posted history of past petitions2.
  • Build your legal and factual case first: cite the specific statute the agency administers, the specific existing rule if you're amending or repealing it, and the change you want, in operative regulatory language if you can manage it.
  • Consider whether an existing advocacy organization or law clinic, such as a university environmental or administrative law clinic, has experience filing petitions in this area. Joint filings with legal backing are taken more seriously.

The mechanics

  1. Identify the responsible agency and, if one exists, its dedicated petitions office. Check the agency's website, such as EPA, FDA, and others, which publish specific instructions.
  2. Draft a written petition stating clearly what rule you want issued, amended, or repealed, the legal authority under which the agency could act, and your supporting reasoning and evidence.
  3. Submit per the agency's stated method, often mail or a web form specific to petitions, not the general regulations.gov comment system, which is for existing proposed rules, not petitions to start one.
  4. Keep your own copy and submission confirmation with date. This matters if you later need to show the agency missed a "reasonable time" to respond.
  5. If the agency does not respond within what a court might consider reasonable (this varies, often 6 months to a few years depending on complexity), you may have grounds to sue to compel a response under the APA.

What to say

Substantive and technical beats general opinion, more so here than almost any other channel, since you're asking the agency to start a whole new rulemaking process.

Petition for Rulemaking under 5 U.S.C. 553(e)

Petitioner: [name/organization]
Requested action: [issue / amend / repeal] [specific rule/CFR cite]
Legal authority: [statute the agency administers]
Basis: [what's wrong with the status quo, with data or citations]
Requested text or outcome: [specific regulatory language or
clearly described result]

A petition that reads like a legal brief gets taken far more seriously than one that reads like a comment or an editorial.

What happens next

The agency must acknowledge and eventually respond, granting, denying, or opening a new rulemaking docket, but "eventually" can mean years, and grant rates are generally low. If granted, the agency typically opens a formal notice-and-comment rulemaking, which itself takes months to years. If denied, the denial itself can sometimes be challenged in federal court as arbitrary and capricious, though that is a significant legal undertaking best done with counsel.

Does it work

Specific, technical petitions are taken more seriously than general ones3, but agencies aren't required to grant anything and "reasonable time" is loosely enforced. See do-regulatory-comments-change-rules for the related evidence on quality over quantity in agency processes.

Take action

If you're ready to draft one, /engage has a petition template and a way to find the right agency office.

Sources

  1. Congressional Research Service, "Petitions for Rulemaking: An Overview," R46190, 2020. source ↩

  2. U.S. EPA, "Administrative Petitions for Rulemaking," 2024. source ↩

  3. GW Regulatory Studies Center, "Quality, Not Quantity: The Key to Effective Commenting," 2018. source ↩