Before 1936, there was no system in place to publish regulations or executive orders; they were simply issued without an organized system.
The plethora of New Deal agencies and regulations made this situation untenable and thus, the Federal Register Act, Ch. 417, 49 Stat. 500 (1935) was enacted to put an end to the chaos.
The Federal Register Act mandates the publication of all presidential proclamations and executive orders, federal regulations, and documents or classes of documents required to be published by Act of Congress that have general applicability and legal effect. In addition, in 1982 orders prescribing a penalty were added to this list.
The subsequent enactment of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in 1946 gave the public the right to participate in agency rulemakings and expanded the scope of the Federal Register. Now, proposed rules are initially published in the Federal Register, the public and interested parties are now able to submit comments on the rules and the issuing agency is required to respond to those comments in the Federal Register. Publication of rules, proposed rules and other actions gives constructive notice of that action. The Federal Register is in essence a chronological publication of proposed and final rules with the agency’s rationale included.
Review Agency websites for in-depth information.
Use the Unified Agenda to keep track of regulations, especially ones with lengthy and complicated histories (Click here for more information about using the Unified Agenda).
Use http://www.Regulations.gov to view and comment on pending rulemakings.
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Contents |
Table of contents which arranges documents by agency and category |
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CFR Parts Affected in this Issue |
List of C.F.R. parts affected by the proposed regulations in that issue |
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Rules and Regulations |
Finalized agency rules; codified annually in the Code of Federal Regulations with citations to Federal Register |
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Interim & Interim Final Rules |
Temporary rules with request for comment (speed usually needed) |
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Direct Final Rules |
Finalized agency rules with request for comments & possible rule withdrawal |
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Proposed Rules |
Proposed rules published in FR with request for comments (30 – 90 days) (NPRM) |
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Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) |
Notice requesting comments for possible rule |
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Negotiated Rulemaking Documents |
Notices regarding negotiated rulemaking committees |
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Petition for Rulemaking, Petition Findings |
Requests, usually from non-governmental bodies |
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Presidential Documents |
Includes limited presidential documents in the "special sections" |
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Notices |
Certain agency announcements on meetings, applications, grants, decisions, authority delegations, information collection activities, policy statements, etc. |
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Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations |
Regulatory agendas from individual agencies (April & October) |
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Reader Aids and Other Material |
Info on publisher, subscriptions, table of contents, CFR parts affected, customer service, electronic research, CFR parts affected during current month, list of new laws |
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Special Sections |
Selected agency documents |
To view proposed regulations and final regulations BEFORE they appear in the FR, use the National Archives Public Inspection Feature.
New documents appear in the Electronic Public Inspection Desk at about 8:45 a.m. each business day.
Regular filing documents are placed on file at 8:45 a.m. for publication in the next day's Federal Register.
Special Filing Documents are filed at other times prior to publication. These documents are not available in electronic form, but a list of these documents can be viewed here.
| Database | Library | Coverage |
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| LexisAdvance | FR - Federal Register | Vol. 45 (1980-) |
| Westlaw | Federal Register (FR) | Vol. 46 (1981-) |
| HeinOnline | HeinOnline Federal Register Library | V0l. 1 (1936-) |
| ProQuest Regulatory Insight | Federal Register | Vol. 3 (1938-) |
These free online sources contain the Federal Register and many different interactive features to search and engage in the regulatory process.
| Website | Information | Coverage |
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| Gov.Info | full text .PDF copies | Vol. 1 (1936-) |
| Regulations.gov | includes regulations that are open for public comment |
In addition, individual agency websites may also have Federal Register material on their websites. See the U.S. Government Manual for a list of Federal Agency websites.
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The Federal Register is also available in Microformat and may be requested from offsite storage through our ILL Service. |
Bluebook Rule 14.2 governs Federal Registrar Citations