; and (D) whether clear roles, responsibilities, requirements, and expectations are clearly defined for each office required to review the regulatory materials. (3) Define and document the roles and responsibilities of each office within the FAA that develops, drafts or reviews each kind of regulatory material in order to ensure that hiring reflects who, where, and how these employees function in the rulemaking framework. (4) Describe any organizational changes or the need to hire additional FAA employees, if necessary and taking into consideration whether current positions are staffed, to reduce delays in publication of proposed and final regulatory materials. (5) In order to provide the public with detailed information on the progress of the development of regulatory materials, identify reporting mechanisms and develop a template and appropriate system metrics for making publicly available on a website a real-time progress tracker that updates itself to show the major stages (as determined by the Secretary) of the development of regulatory materials as they are initiated, in progress, and completed, from inception of a proposed development of regulatory materials to publication of the final version of such materials. (6) Consider changes to the FAA’s best practices under rules governing ex parte communications with other validating authorities, including international validating authorities, and with consideration of the public interest in transparency, to provide flexibility for FAA employees to discuss regulatory materials, particularly for those related to enhancing aviation safety and the United States’ aviation international leadership. (7) Recommend methods by which the FAA can incorporate research funded by the Department of Transportation, in addition to consensus standards and conformance assessment processes set by private sector standards-developing organizations into regulatory materials, to keep pace with rapid changes in aviation technologies and processes. (8) Recommend mechanisms to optimize the