Commentari is an AI-powered civic engagement platform that helps individuals and organizations draft unique, substantive public comments on federal regulations and legislation, then submit them directly to Regulations.gov and Congress.
What is Commentari?
Commentari summarizes complex rules and pending legislation in plain language, identifies issues agencies must address under the Administrative Procedure Act, and helps each supporter draft a unique comment in their own voice. Input includes regulatory proposals and bills from a live database of over 1,500 active policies; output is a formatted public comment ready for submission. The web platform was built by Eric Epstein — a 32‑year DOJ/ATF senior policy counsel, primary author of the Ghost Gun Rule, and Distinguished Presidential Rank Award recipient — who spent decades on the receiving end of public comments.
Key Features
- Instant Policy Analysis — AI digests federal rules and statutes into unbiased summaries so users understand key issues without reading 500‑page legal documents.
- Smart Drafting — Choose a stance (Against/Neutral/Support) and tone (Professional/Legalistic/Witty/Urgent); the tool generates a unique, substantive comment that reflects the user’s personal perspective.
- Direct Submission — Comments go directly to Regulations.gov for federal rulemakings and to Congress through authorized channels, eliminating manual paperwork.
- Collective Impact — Coordinate campaigns with other users; track the collective impact of a community on specific policies.
- Custom Campaign Pages (organizations) — Branded pages for nonprofits, advocacy groups, and associations to run coordinated comment drives.
- Real‑time Member Analytics — Monitor engagement metrics, citation verification, and donation links embedded in campaigns.
- Automated Policy Tracking — Nightly rule tracking alerts organizations to new and changing regulations.
- Seamless Integration — Embeddable donation links and API‑style connectors for existing advocacy tools.
Who is it for?
- Individual advocates — Turn complex rules into a personal, one‑of‑a‑kind comment without reading the full regulatory text.
- Nonprofit and advocacy groups — Mobilize supporters with branded campaign pages, measure engagement, and verify that submitted comments are unique and substantive.
- Policy professionals — Quickly analyze and respond to rulemakings using AI summaries and stay ahead of deadlines with nightly tracking.
- Civic‑tech organizations — Embed Commentari’s drafting and submission workflow into their own platforms via integration.
What can you do with Commentari?
- Individual citizen: Browse trending regulations (e.g., ATF’s “Defining ‘Willfully’ for Firearms Violations”), select your stance and tone, and generate a comment that cites the relevant legal standards — then submit to the federal docket in minutes.
- Advocacy coordinator: Create a branded campaign page for a pending rule, invite members to draft comments through your portal, track submission counts and citation quality in real time.
- Policy researcher: Use the AI summary to quickly grasp the core issues in a 500‑page rule, then produce a legally grounded comment that addresses the agency’s required findings under the APA.
How does it work?
Three steps: (1) Find Your Cause — search the live database of 1,500+ active bills and regulations or browse trending policies. (2) Craft Your Message — use the AI tools to understand the nuance, then select a stance and tone to generate a unique comment that reflects your personal perspective. (3) Make It Official — submit the comment to your legislator or directly to the Federal Register via Commentari’s verified integration.
Pricing
Freemium model: free tier includes 3 comments per month. Paid plans for heavy users and organizations are available but not detailed on the public site.
FAQ
