View Rule

The Forest Service proposes amending regulations at 36 CFR part 200.4 that describe the Forest Service Directive System to create a distinction between the force and effect of its two components: The Forest Service Manual and the Forest Service Handbooks. Guidance in the Forest Service Manual, which typically includes management objectives, proclamations of policy, definitions of key terms, and delegations of responsibility and authority would be described as binding supervisory direction that employees are generally expected to follow. Additionally, the agency proposes amending 36 CFR 216.2 to indicate that advisory or informational guidance that employees have full discretion to deviate from is outside the scope of the statutory phrase standards, criteria, and guidelines and therefore not subject to notice and comment procedures.