The Department of Transportation (DOT) has become the first federal agency to establish procedures, in the absence of specific statutory authority, for providing financial assistance to indigent participants in administrative proceedings.¹ On January 13, DOT announced the beginning of a one-year demonstration funding program² for participants in selected National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rulemaking and adjudicatory proceedings under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966.³ The purpose of this demonstration program is to aid DOT in determining at a later date whether assistance should be provided to indigent participants in all DOT proceedings. To this end, the agency at the same time issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking inviting public comment by April 20, 1977, on possible establishment of a permanent, department-wide assistance program.

In DOT's view, assisting certain indigent participants will provide added assurance that a full range of views and all relevant information are presented to the agency in its consideration of regulatory actions. The agency noted in its advance notice that consumer, environmental, and citizens groups have often had difficulty bearing the cost of participation in federal regulatory proceedings, while better financed groups representing the regulated industry are able to participate vigorously and effectively, thereby attaining a disproportionate influence in governmental decisionmaking. Removing the financial barriers to effective participation was thus put forth as a logical way both to reduce or eliminate this imbalance and to improve the quality of administrative decisionmaking by facilitating fuller presentation of all points of view.