Welcome!

About Our Office

The Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution (CADR), established in October 2001, is located within the Office of the Secretary under the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget (PMB). The CADR office promotes, coordinates and facilitates greater use of alternative dispute resolution and consensus-building processes throughout the bureaus and offices of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Director of the office reports to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Capital, Performance and Partnerships, and serves as the Department’s Dispute Resolution Specialist responsible for ensuring implementation of the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996, and the Department’s policy on the use of ADR and consensus-building processes to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts that may arise in any area of the Department’s work. The CADR office is also responsible for assisting with and reporting on the Department’s experiences with negotiated rulemaking consistent with the Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990.

The CADR office works in collaboration with the members of the Interior Dispute Resolution Council (IDRC) comprised of designated representatives from each Bureau, other offices within PMB, and the Office of the Solicitor.

About Our Website

As the Department’s clearinghouse for information and resources on alternative dispute resolution processes, conflict management systems, and negotiated rulemaking, the CADR staff makes every effort to keep abreast of the field and share that information here. Your feedback is important to us. Please let us know how we can improve our site and make it most useful to you.