Title 22

SECTION 212.26

212.26 General.

§ 212.26 General.

(a) This subpart governs all employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) involved in any phase of issuing Agency guidance documents as defined by under E.O. 13891.

(b) This subpart applies to all guidance documents issued by all components of the Agency after January 5, 2021.

(c) For purposes of this subpart, the term “guidance document” includes any statement of Agency policy or interpretation that concerns a statute, regulation, or technical matter within the jurisdiction of the Agency that is intended to have general applicability and future effect, but is not intended to have the force or effect of law in its own right and is not otherwise required by statute to be implemented through the rulemaking procedures specified in 5 U.S.C. 553. The term is not confined to formal written documents; guidance may come in a variety of forms, including (but not limited to) letters, memoranda, circulars, bulletins, and advisories, and may include video, audio, and web-based formats. See OMB Bulletin 07-02, Agency Good Guidance Practices.

(d) This subpart does not apply to the following:

(1) Rules exempt from rulemaking requirements under 5 U.S.C. 553(a);

(2) Rules of Agency organization, procedure, or practice;

(3) Decisions of Agency adjudications under 5 U.S.C. 554 or similar statutory provisions;

(4) Internal executive management legal advice or legal advisory opinions addressed to executive officials;

(5) Agency statements of specific applicability, including advisory or legal opinions directed to particular parties about circumstance-specific questions (e.g.), case or investigatory letters responding to complaints, warning letters), notices regarding particular locations or facilities (e.g.), guidance that pertains to the use, operation, or control of a U.S. Government facility or property), and correspondence with individual persons or entities (e.g., Congressional correspondence), except documents ostensibly directed to a particular party but designed to guide the conduct of the broader regulated public;

(6) Legal briefs, other court filings, or positions taken in litigation or enforcement actions;

(7) Agency statements that do not set forth a policy on a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue or an interpretation of a statute or regulation, including speeches and individual presentations, editorials, media interviews, press materials, or Congressional testimony that do not set forth for the first time a new regulatory policy;

(8) Guidance pertaining to military or foreign-affairs functions;

(9) Grant solicitations and awards;

(10) Contract solicitations and awards; or

(11) Purely internal Agency guidance policies, such as Chapters of the ADS directed solely to USAID's employees, or to other Federal Departments and Agencies not intended to have substantial future effect on the behavior of regulated parties; USAID's Country/Regional Development Cooperation Strategies; the Agency's programmatic Policies and Strategies; Acquisition and Assistance Policy Directives (AAPDs); Application Guidelines; COVID-19 Guidance; Food for Peace Information Bulletins (FFPIBs); Guidance and Tools for Global Food-Security Programs; Procurement Executive Bulletins (PEBs); Standard Provisions for the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) Policy; and documents in the USAID Policy Registry.

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