Seyfarth Synopsis: DOJ announces that proposed rules for state and local government websites will issue July 2017.
The DOJ announced last week in the federal government’s Unified Agenda that it will be issuing a proposed rule for state and government websites in July 2017. The Unified Agenda provided no date for the proposed rule for public accommodations websites, however. As we reported previously in May the DOJ had issued a Supplemental Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SANPRM) for the state and local website rulemaking in which it stated that the results of that rulemaking would “facilitate the creation of an infrastructure for web accessibility that will be very important in the Department’s preparation of the Title III Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Web site accessibility of public accommodations.” The SANPRM posed more than 120 questions for public comment, the period for which closed on October 7.
Given the many delays in the state and local government website rulemaking which started in 2010, we have little confidence that a proposed rule will really issue in July 2017. Furthermore, the projected July 2017 date was likely set before the election which injects additional uncertainly for the reasons we discussed in a prior post.
