How to Comment

Public comment is not a petition or a poll — it is a formal step in federal rulemaking. Agencies are legally required to consider substantive comments, and courts have struck down rules when agencies ignored them. A specific, expert comment from someone the rule actually affects is one of the most powerful things you can do.

The essentials

  • What: OMB’s proposed Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance (revisions to 2 CFR)
  • Docket: OMB-2026-0034
  • Where: regulations.gov
  • Deadline: July 13, 2026 (45 days after the May 29, 2026 publication)
  • Format rule: Begin each comment with the relevant section number in brackets, e.g. [200.205]. If you address several sections, submit them as separate comments (one bracket each) or clearly label each part.

Step by step

  1. Pick the section(s) that affect you. Browse the section-by-section guide and choose the one or two changes that touch your work most directly. Focused beats broad.

  2. Write from your own experience. In a few short paragraphs, explain who you are, what you do, and specifically how this change would damage your research, your trainees, your patients, or your field. Concrete examples and numbers are far more persuasive than slogans.

  3. Open with the section number in brackets. Start the comment text with [200.205] (or whichever section). This is required by the rule’s instructions and helps reviewers route it.

  4. Submit at regulations.gov. Go to Docket OMB-2026-0034, choose “Comment,” paste your text (or attach a PDF for longer comments), and submit. You’ll get a tracking number — save it.

Need a starting draft? The Draft with AI page helps you turn your situation into a personalized comment in a couple of minutes.

What makes a comment count

Do

  • Speak from your own, specific experience
  • Name the exact section and what it would do
  • Give concrete harms: lost grants, stalled projects, trainees affected, patients, costs
  • Suggest a fix where you can (“OMB should instead…”)
  • Keep it professional and factual
  • Verify any facts or numbers you cite

Avoid

  • Copy-pasting a form letter — agencies can treat near-identical comments as a single comment
  • Insults, slogans, or partisan framing
  • Vague “I oppose this” with no reasons
  • Unverified claims or made-up statistics
  • Submitting an AI draft you haven’t read and personalized
ImportantOn duplicate comments

The number of comments matters far less than their substance. A thousand identical form letters typically count as one comment; a hundred genuinely individual, expert comments create a hundred items the agency must address. Personalize. Be specific. Be you.

After you submit

  • Save your regulations.gov tracking number.
  • Send the same message to your members of Congress. Comments go to OMB; Congress is a separate, powerful lever. See Contact Congress to find your representatives and reuse what you wrote.
  • Encourage colleagues to write their own comments (share the resources and this guide). Aim for breadth and specificity, not copies.
  • Consider asking your department, scientific society, or institution to file an organizational comment as well — those carry distinct weight.