About ComtIQ
Regulatory intelligence for U.S. federal rulemaking, based in Madison, Wisconsin
ComtIQ reads the full public comment record of a federal rulemaking, finds the arguments that can move the final rule and tells clients where the rule is likely to land. AI sorts the record. An analyst checks every key finding against the comments themselves.
What we do
We read what people told the agency, and what the agency has to answer.
Every federal rule that goes through notice and comment leaves a public record on Regulations.gov. Some dockets hold a few hundred comments. Others hold hundreds of thousands, most of them form letters. ComtIQ collects the whole record, groups the campaigns, identifies the organizations behind the letters and ranks the arguments by how hard they would be for the agency to dismiss.
Each report opens with a bottom line and a set of findings with confidence levels. Forecasts use fixed likelihood terms, and we log each one and score it when the rule is published. Once a rule is final, we match each significant argument to the agency's response.
Who we serve
Teams that need the record read before the agency decides.
Regulated companies, trade associations, law and policy firms, consulting and risk firms, nonprofits, journalists and researchers. What they share is a rule open for comment, a deadline and more comments than anyone on staff can read.
How we differ
Tracking tools tell you a rule exists. We read what people said about it.
We serve any side of a rulemaking. Every number in a report links back to a comment a reader can open, and an analyst verifies every key finding before release.
Founders
Fifteen years of reading regulatory data.
ComtIQ grew out of the Rulemaking Observatory, an instrument that has collected more than 70,000 public comments across seven federal dockets. ComtIQ is taking part in the Wisconsin Venture Innovation Challenge 2026 at UW-Madison.
John Panitz
Over 15 years in public law, regulatory compliance and institutional governance. He served as data protection officer of Brazil's Federal Public Defender's Office from 2020 to 2022, in charge of the institution's compliance with Brazil's data protection law. He holds a master's degree in law and has published on data protection. At ComtIQ he runs the data infrastructure, the document classification and the quality checks behind every number.
Vanessa Panitz
Seventeen years of problem solving as a federal public defender. LL.M. candidate at UW-Madison Law School. Author of the Rulemaking Observatory. She does the coding and researches regulatory data and administrative decision-making. At ComtIQ she leads regulatory research and the analytical method behind every judgment we publish, from where a pending rule is likely to land to what a final rule will change for each sector it reaches.
Published work
Reports out now
- DOL independent contractor rule, WHD-2026-0001. Who wrote 16,498 comments, the four forms behind 95.9% of the typed ones, and the arguments the final rule has to answer.
- FAA drone rules, Parts 108 and 74. Two linked dockets read together, with the organizations that filed in both.
- EPA endangerment finding rescission, EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0194. The gap between 571,676 comments received and 30,929 visible to the public.
- BLM oil and gas leasing, BLM-2025-0037. Which provisions are likely to change before the agency decides.
- FAA commercial space waiver, FAA-2026-8614. Launch companies back the waiver and split over how far it should reach.
Contact
Write to us
Email vpanitz@comtiq.com or request a report on any federal docket.