Under the Electronic Government Act of 2002, the crafting of regulations will shift from a paper-based to a fully electronic lawmaking process. The site is designed to stimulate ideas about how to design on-line rulemaking, to promote the creation of participation tools by the private sector and draw attention to this important democratic challenge.

Rulemaking, the process by which the administrative state in the United States crafts the thousands of regulations that govern every aspect of private and public life from air quality to transportation safety, has been hailed as "one of the greatest inventions of modern government." By law, citizens have a right to participate directly in the rulemaking process. Public participation is intended to improve the quality of rules and render regulatory rulemaking more legitimate and accountable.