Each day the Federal Register is published and includes the text and graphics from Volume 59 (January 2, 1994) forward. Browse CFR Parts Affected from the Federal Register to find final and proposed rules that affect the CFR and have been published in the Federal Register within the past 24 hours, week, month, or within a specific date range. Each document begins with a heading that includes the name of the issuing agency (and subagency if appropriate), the CFR title and part(s) affected, and a brief description of the specific subject of the document. In some cases an agency docket number, which identifies the document federal register within the agency’s internal filing system.

Unified Agenda

The CFR is updated and published once a year in print, fiche and electronic formats. This section includes advanced notices of proposed rulemaking, which describe a problem or situation and the anticipated regulatory action of the agency and seek public response concerning the necessity for regulation and the adequacy of the agency’s anticipated regulatory action. Additionally, many agencies voluntarily publish proposed changes to procedural rules, interpretative rules and agency policies to gather public comments.

• The CFR contains the complete and official text of agency regulations organized into fifty titles covering broad subject areas.
• The Federal Register has been published by the National Archives and Records Administration since 1936 and consists of several distinct parts.
• The Federal Register (the daily journal of the Federal government) is published every business day by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)’s Office of the Federal Register (OFR).
• The official publication of materials released by the White House Press Secretary and Executive Clerk.

Shortcuts to Federal Register Publications

The Federal Register (the daily journal of the Federal government) is published every business day by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)’s Office of the Federal Register (OFR). Sections within each issue of the Federal Register are organized by the issuing agency and categorized as Notices, Rules, Proposed Rules, or other types of documents. Corrections Section- This section of the Federal Register contains editorial corrections of previously published Presidential, Rule, Proposed Rule, and Notice documents.

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These corrections are prepared by the Office of the Federal Register to correct typographical or clerical errors made in the printing of the Federal Register. Agency prepared corrections are issued as signed documents and appear in the appropriate document categories elsewhere in the issue. List of CFR Sections Affected The List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA) lists proposed, new, and amended Federal regulations that have been published in the Federal Register since the most recent revision date of a CFR title. The National Archives website includes the Documents Drafting Handbook, which gives Federal agencies guidance and examples for drafting Federal Register documents. Accessible from DOI Locations OnlyHeinOnline Federal Register LibraryHeinOnline now updates the Federal Register on a daily basis.

• OFR maintains a List of Documents on Public Inspection which includes a short description of these documents and the date they will appear in the Federal Register.
• Additionally, this section includes documents that have no regulatory text and do not amend the CFR, but either affect the agency’s handling of its regulations or are of continuing interest to the public in dealing with an agency.
• Accessible from DOI Locations OnlyHeinOnline Federal Register LibraryHeinOnline now updates the Federal Register on a daily basis.
• All editions of the Unified Agenda through the spring 2007 edition were published in their entirety in the Federal Register.

Also, Volume 59 (1994) has entire issues available in PDF format only, and smaller sections available in text format only. The Federal Register contains rules and regulations which are regulatory documents having general applicability and legal effect. Published every Federal working day, the Federal Register is the official journal of the United States Government. It provides legal notice of administrative rules and notices and Presidential documents in a comprehensive, uniform manner.

Proposed Rules Section- This section of the Federal Register contains notices to the public of the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules. Also appearing in the preliminary pages (Contents Section) of each day’s Federal Register is a list of the CFR Parts Affected in This Issue. Under each CFR title the parts affected by the rules and proposed rules in the issue are listed along with the page numbers where relevant documents begin.

Shortcuts to OFR Publications

Details are available at the developers page12 and Ruby and Python client libraries are available. Govinfo.gov also allows users to retrieve documents using a variety of different search criteria. Advanced Search – Click here to select a date or date range, collection, and up to 5 fields to search in.

The Federal Register is the official daily publication for Presidential Documents, Executive Orders, proposed, interim, and final rules and regulations, and notices by Federal Agencies, as well as notices of hearings, decisions, investigations, and committee meetings. The Federal Register has been published by the National Archives and Records Administration since 1936 and consists of several distinct parts. Many proposed rules are documents that suggest changes to agency regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and request public comment on those suggested changes. This section also contains documents relating to previously published proposed rules, extending the comment period, announcing a public hearing, making available supplemental information, withdrawing a proposed rule, or correcting a previously published proposed rule.

The Unified Agenda is compiled by the Regulatory Information Service Center, a component of the U.S. General Services Administration, in cooperation with the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Applicable agendas are then published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the Federal Register. The Regulatory Information Service Center assigns a Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) to identify each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda. Presidential Documents Section- This section of the Federal Register contains documents signed by the President and submitted to the Office of the Federal Register for publication. Presidential documents include Proclamations and Executive Orders, as well as other documents such as determinations, letters, memorandums, and reorganization plans.

Presidential Documents

The full text of the Federal Register can be searched via the Government Publishing Office’s govinfo, or through the National Archives’ own web site, federalregister.gov. Federal depository libraries within the U.S. also receive copies of the text, either in paper or microfiche format. The official publication of materials released by the White House Press Secretary and Executive Clerk. General and permanent rules published in the Federal Register and codified in the Code of Federal Regulations. Link Service – Click here to easily construct links to an FR document if you know the FR Doc Number or volume and page numbers. Citation Search – Click here to retrieve a single FR document in PDF format if you know the Year (Volume) and Page Number of the document.

Searching the More Recent Volumes (Volume 60 to present)

As part of the Federal E-Government eRulemaking Initiative, the web site Regulations.gov was established in 2003 to enable easy public access to agency dockets on rulemaking projects including the published Federal Register document. The public can use Regulations.gov to access entire rulemaking dockets from participating Federal agencies to include providing on-line comments directly to those responsible for drafting the rulemakings. To help federal agencies manage their dockets, the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) was launched in 2005 and is the agency side of regulations.gov. Taking all comments into consideration, NARA develops final regulations which are published in the Federal Register and then codified in title 36 of the CFR. NARA also publishes notices of agency records schedules for public comment as required by 44 U.S.C. 3303a.

GPO Describes Federal Register Publications

The Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda) provides uniform reporting on the actions administrative agencies plan to issue in the near and long term. Executive Order “Regulatory Planning and Review,” signed September 30, 1993 (58 FR 51735), and Office of Management and Budget memoranda implementing section 4 of that Order establish minimum standards for agencies’ agendas, including specific types of information for each entry. Each edition of the Unified Agenda includes regulatory agendas from Federal entities that currently have regulations under development or review. Fall editions of the Unified Agenda include The Regulatory Plan, which presents agency statements of regulatory priorities and additional information about the most significant regulatory activities planned for the coming year. Notices Section- This section of the Federal Register contains documents other than rules or proposed rules that are applicable to the public.