Understand public input on a rule

A comment period is closing, or has closed, and someone needs to know what the field actually said.

Who this is for

Written for Trade groups, public-affairs firms, regulatory consultants. You bring the commercial question; the published record behind it comes back with the answer, and you can see where each figure came from.

What to bring

Have these to hand before you paste the prompt. Anything you leave out should be asked for rather than guessed at.

The docket or document identifier
The question you are trying to answer about the comments

Try this prompt

Paste this where you connected HARBOR Port and replace the bracketed parts. It asks for sources and periods on purpose: that is what makes the answer checkable.

For docket [ID], group the public comments into the main concerns and the changes people are asking for. Name representative commenters and link each record. Tell me how many comments you reviewed, and say clearly that the submitters are self-selected, so this is not a poll and not a consensus.

Then ask a narrower question. These are the ones people ask next.

Which concerns appear in comments from organisations rather than individuals.

What did the commenters agree on, if anything.

What the answer looks like

The shape below is the point of the workflow. If a response arrives without the periods and the source behind each number, ask for them before you use it.

Themes, each with the commenters who raised them and links
The number of comments reviewed against the number filed
Points of agreement and of conflict
The self-selection caveat stated in the result, not only in a footnote

Limits to keep in view

Public comments are written by people who chose to write them. A count or a theme is not a poll, a consensus, or a representative sample.

Not answered by this data:

Your revenue, customers, bookings, pipeline or churn
Inventory, capacity, staffing rosters or payroll
Your actual utility bills, fuel spend or supplier quotes
Business credit, insurance premiums, or lending decisions
Permit, licence or certification status
A local forecast, a hazard estimate, or a legal opinion

Where the numbers come from

The answer is built from the published sources below. Each one keeps its own geography, period and definitions, and the answer states which was used.

Regulations.gov dockets, documents and comments

The exact names, and where to read the detail

regulations-gov

regulations_gov_docket_by_id
regulations_gov_document_by_id
regulations_gov_comments_on_document
regulations_gov_commenters_for_topic

Scoped to what your plan reaches, and to the sources each workflow names. Reviewing the catalogue first is the cheap way to decide whether this covers your question: source catalogue.