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Interim-Final Rule Section 553 of the APA contains a number of exceptions for certain types of rules that allow agencies to skip the proposed rulemaking step and go directly to a final rule. One such exception covers situations when an agency finds that inviting public comment would be "impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest." This could include emergency situations. The "interim-final rule" is a device that agencies have used increasingly in recent years to go directly to a final rule while still providing some opportunity for public comment. In effect, the agency issues a final rule without a prior NPRM and invites post-promulgation comment at the same time. This technique is most often used (and more easily justified) when an agency is acting under a new law that requires the agency to take certain regulatory action within a specified and short period of time after the law takes effect. This technique is not mentioned in the APA. It is appropriate only when the agency has "good cause" to skip the NPRM stage.
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