Legal Information Center
Guide to Locating Federal Regulations
Congress frequently passes laws (statutes) that deal with complex topics such as the regulation of telecommunications and employee pension plans. The members of Congress and their support staff often do not have the requisite expertise to adequately enforce these laws; or they may, in fact, lack the authority to enforce them. Congress, by enacting legislation, gives federal agencies power to make rules and guidelines to carry out the laws. The federal agencies belong to the administrative branch of the federal govenment. Regulations (also referred to as "rules") are legally binding and can be enforced as statutes.
Coverage
Like their statutory counterparts, regulations are published by the federal government in two basic formats: chronological and subject matter. The Federal Register publishes the regulations chronologically: the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) publishes the regulations by subject matter.
The Federal Register is printed each business day, with continuous pagination throughout the year. It publishes regulations chronologically. The arrangement of material in the Federal Register is as follows:
1. Presidential documents (proclamations, executive orders and other executive documents);
2. Rules and regulations;
3. Proposed rules and notices of hearings;
4. Notices (for matters not concerned with rulemaking proceedings);
5. Notices of Sunshine Act meetings.The Federal Register Index is printed monthly and cumulates through the year. Arrangement is by agency, not by subject matter.
***For a more detailed discussion of the Federal Register, go to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The Code of Federal Regulations
The Code of Federal Regulations or CFR is the codified form of the regulations. Codification is the process by which the regulations are arranged by subject matter. The complete set of the CFR contains 50 titles. The first five titles concern government operations; thereafter the titles are arranged alphabetically. ***For a list of coverage by title, check out the Legal Information Institute of Cornell University. Caution! The titles of the CFR do not always match the titles of the US Code. The colors of the volumes change each year to avoid confusing one year's volumes with another's.
Within each title of the CFR, regulations are arranged by agency. Each chapter contains the regulations of a particular agency. Chapter are divided into parts: parts into sections. A CFR citation (for example, 11 CFR §5.5) shows the title, the part, and the section.
The entire set is revised annually. However, the revision process is accomplished on a quarterly basis, with a different range of titles revised each quarter. The revision schedule proceeds as follows:
Titles 1-16 are current as of January 1 of the cover year;
Titles 17-27 are current as of April 1;
Titles 28-41 are current as of July 1;
Titles 42-50 are current as of October 1.The CFR Index and Finding Aids volume is revised once a year and covers regulations codified in the CFR as of January 1.
It contains:
1. a subject/agency index for regulations currently codified in the CFR;
2. a list of agency-prepared indexes appearing in individual CFR volumes;
3. a table of laws and Presidential documents cited as authority for regulations currently codified in the CFR;
4. a list of CFR titles, chapters, subchapters, and parts; and
5. an alphabetical list of agencies appearing in the CFR.The Congressional Information Service (CIS) publishes an Index to the Code of Federal Regulations every year in four volumes. This index is updated by four supplements issued in July, September, November of the current year and February of the following year.
***For more detailed information about the CFR, try visiting this Nuclear Regulatory Commission page.
Finding the Federal Register and the CFR Online
GPO Access Federal Register 1994 - present GPO Access Code of Federal Regulations 1996 (limited coverage)
1997 (complete coverage) - presentLegal Information Institute at Cornell Code of Federal Regulations current edition Congressional Universe Federal Register current edition Congressional Universe Code of Federal Regulations current edition
Once a regulation in the CFR has been found, follow these steps to update the regulation:
1. Consult the most recent issue of the CFR List of Sections Affected (LSA). This is a monthly pamphlet that cites pages of the Federal Register where new or proposed rules affecting the CFR are located. Because LSA cumulates every month, it is not necessary to examine more than the most recent issue to find out about changes since the latest CFR revision.
2. To look for changes in the regulation since the most recent issue of the LSA, consult the List of C.F.R. Sections Affected in the last issue of the Federal Register for each month not covered by LSA, as well as the most recent issue of the Federal Register. The LSA sections in the Federal Register cumulate through the calendar month. Note that this list is by part, not by section.
3. To check for how courts have treated the regulation, go to the Shepard's Code of Federal Regulations Citations.