DoD Federal Docket Management System
The Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) is a centralized Docket Management system that provides Federal Agencies and citizens the ability to search, view, download, and submit comments on federal Notices and Rules. The public interface for FDMS can be found at www.regulations.gov.
The RAACD manages FDMS on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (non-procurement) and the Military Departments with the exception of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Prior to publication, all rules are sent to RAACD for Regulatory Policy Officer Approval (see DoD Regulatory Policy Officer Approval on main page). At or before this time, RAACD will assign the rulemaking a Docket ID (ex. DOD-2010-OS-0175). This docket ID is unique to this rulemaking but will publish with each phase of the rule (ie, proposed, interim final, final). Docket IDs can also be created for Notices that solicit public comment. In order to obtain a docket ID for a notice, please contact an OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer at osd.mc-alex.odcmo.mbx.osdfederalregister@mail.mil.
When a notice or rulemaking publishes in the Federal Register, RAACD will post a copy of the published document in the docket assigned to that agency action. The public will then be able to view the rule or notice and submit comments by a Web form through the end of the comment period. These comments are not automatically posted for viewing on Regulations.gov. RAACD reviews each comment received through the Web site and the U.S. Mail (paper submissions are sent to OCMO, Directorate of Oversight and Compliance, 4800 Mark Center Drive, Attn: Mailbox #24, Alexandria, VA 22350-1700). In accordance with the Systems of Records Notice in place for DoD’s use of FDMS, most public submissions are posted to Regulations.gov without change.
The System of Records Notice (SORN) in place for DoD use of FDMS is published in the Federal Register at: 71 FR 586.
In some cases, however, information is redacted from public submissions before posting to Regulations.gov. In order to protect the Privacy of public users who submit comments on DoD dockets, measures are in place to redact personal identifying information from public submissions before DoD posts them to Regulations.gov for public viewing. This redaction process applies to OSD (non-acquisition) and the Military Departments with the exception of the US Army Corps of Engineers.
When public submissions are redacted prior to posting, RAACD will forward the original comment to the component action officer of the rulemaking or notice for review. Otherwise, component action officers may monitor their dockets on Regulations.gov by conducting a search of the docket ID from the home page. Regulations.gov also offers advanced searching and docket monitoring capabilities. These are futher explained on the Help page of Regulations.gov.
To allow for ample review time and the security processing of comments submitted by mail, please continue to monitor Regulations.gov for 8 business days following the close of your docket’s comment period to ensure that the docket is complete.