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What is the Federal Register? (A brief overview)

By Leslie A. Pardo

In 1935, Congress passed the Federal Register Act (44 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.), providing for the publication of the Federal Register. The Federal Register was first published in 1936. In 1946, Congress passed the Administrative Procedure Act, (5 U.S.C. 551 et seq.) which granted the public the right to participate in the rulemaking process by requiring agencies to publish notice of their proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register and by giving the public the opportunity to comment on proposed regulations.

The Federal Register is the official daily publication covering federal agency activities such as, rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as, executive orders and other presidential documents. It is updated daily and is published Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

The Federal Register is where you find the changes or additions to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The CFR contains the complete and official text of agency regulations organized into fifty titles covering broad subject areas. The CFR is updated and published once a year.

How is the Federal Register organized?

1. Contents. At the front of each issue is a table of contents in which agencies are listed alphabetically. Under the name of each agency, the documents appearing in that issue are arranged by category, and page numbers are provided.

2. CFR Parts Affected in This Issue. Each issue of the Federal Register contains a section near the front that lists CFR Parts Affected in This Issue.3. Presidential Documents. Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders are located in the Federal Register (as well as several other sources).3. Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders are located in the Federal Register (as well as several other sources).4. Final Rules. The full text of the final rule is published in the Federal Register along with a background of the rule and a section on responses to comments and changes to the regulation, if any. This gives you the intent of the rule.3. Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders are located in the Federal Register (as well as several other sources).4. . The full text of the final rule is published in the Federal Register along with a background of the rule and a section on responses to comments and changes to the regulation, if any. This gives you the intent of the rule.5. Proposed Rules. This section contains notices of proposed rules and regulations. Its purpose is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process prior to the adoption of final rules. The proposed rules will contain the contact information for the agency.3. Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders are located in the Federal Register (as well as several other sources).4. . The full text of the final rule is published in the Federal Register along with a background of the rule and a section on responses to comments and changes to the regulation, if any. This gives you the intent of the rule.5. This section contains notices of proposed rules and regulations. Its purpose is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process prior to the adoption of final rules. The proposed rules will contain the contact information for the agency.6. Notices. This section of the Federal Register contains documents other than rules or proposed rules that are of interest to the public, e.g., grant application deadlines, the filing of petitions and applications and notices of meetings, required by the Sunshine Act.

3. Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders are located in the Federal Register (as well as several other sources).4. . The full text of the final rule is published in the Federal Register along with a background of the rule and a section on responses to comments and changes to the regulation, if any. This gives you the intent of the rule.5. This section contains notices of proposed rules and regulations. Its purpose is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process prior to the adoption of final rules. The proposed rules will contain the contact information for the agency.6. This section of the Federal Register contains documents other than rules or proposed rules that are of interest to the public, e.g., grant application deadlines, the filing of petitions and applications and notices of meetings, required by the Sunshine Act.7. Special Sections. To accommodate the duplication and distribution needs of issuing agencies, some agency documents are published in separate sections near the end of each issue, rather than in the appropriate sections.

8. Reader Aids. This section appears at the end of the Federal Register and lists telephone numbers for information and assistance, online resources, a parallel table of Federal Register pages for the month, a cumulative table of CFR parts affected during the month, and a List of Public Laws, setting forth those bills from the current session of Congress that have recently become law.

Why use the Federal Register?

1. To update regulations.  For example, you have 29 CFR 1630.2- the print volume comes out once a year.  There may have been some changes to this rule since then.  They would all be published in the Federal Register. 

2. To find proposed amendments that are put out to the public for comment.  Before an agency amends a rule or creates a new one they must first put the rule or amendment out for the publics comments (administrative procedure act).  The proposed rules allow you see what might be happening down the line.  A great thing to keep your clients apprised of changes that may be coming and give them a chance to make comments.

3. To find the intent or to clarify what a rule is really saying. When a final rule is published in the Federal Register the agency includes the background of the rule and addresses the comments that they received from the public. They explain why the rule is the way it is.  This information in not included when the rule is published in the CFR. 

How do you make sure you have all the changes to a particular Regulation?

1. Start with ?The List of CFR Sections Affected? (L.S.A.). The LSA is a separate set of soft cover pamphlets that gives you a numerical listing of changes to the CFR, arranged by title, part and section. This is updated monthly, so you still may need to go farther to make sure you are more current.|

2. Next look at the last issue of the Federal Register for each month that has passed since the LSA date you were looking at.  Remember, the back of the Federal Register contains the Reader Aids and the list of CFR sections affected during that month to date.

3. Lexis and Westlaw have the updating capabilities for the CFR. On Lexis use the ?Retrieve Regulatory Impact? link.  On Westlaw use the KeyCite feature.

Where can you find the Federal Register?

1. The print version of the Federal Register can be found in the ASU law library, older versions are on the microforms.

2. Online at the Government Printing Office site http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/  (1994 to the present)

3. Hein Online  (1936 to the present)

4. Westlaw (1936 to the present- two separate databases)

5. Lexis (1980 to the present)

Full post as published by Ross-Blakley Law Library Blog on April 22, 2010 (boomark / email).