In the last days of the Obama administration, on December 21, 2016, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) introduced the first mobile app to provide information about the status of agency regulatory actions and other related items.  (Reference official blog post here.)

RegInfo.gov has been around for over a decade as a source for finding regulatory information updates, including executive orders.  The OIRA decided to take it one step further into the digital age by creating an app.

RegInfo Mobile is available for iPhone and Android and will let users find information about the status of federal regulations and information collection requests.

Users can view current and historical information about rulemakings; view detailed information about OIRA’s pending and concluded reviews of significant rulemakings; browse the log of past and upcoming public meetings about regulations under OIRA review; and view detailed information about pending information requests that are with OIRA.  A new feature will also allow users to view an interactive visual timeline of the development of a particular rule throughout the review process.

OIRA says it will provide better search capabilities; more streamlined, user-accessible information on regulations; and an interactive timeline to visualize the development of agency rulemakings.

I haven’t tried the app but it sounds pretty awesome and I’m glad the government is slowly moving into the 21^st century.  OIRA encourages users to try it and provide comments so they can make it better.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can download the app here. Or if you have an Android phone or Android tablet, you can get it here.

Now when you need to find out something about federal regulations, you can say “There’s an app for that!”