Regulations are rules and procedures written by administrative agencies, such as the Department of Justice, the Environmnetal Protection Agency, and the Department of Treasury, that enforce and implement statutes under their jurisdiction.
Federal regulations are first published in the Daily Federal Register and are eventually compiled in a subject arrangement in the Code of Federal Regulations ("CFR"). While research into federal regulations usually starts with the CFR, it is important that the Federal Register be used for updating.
Summary of the Research Process Detailed Below: (1) Use a subject index to find a CFR citation, if needed. (2) Use the LSA to update (may need to use more than one issue). (3) Use Federal Register "CFR Parts Affected" to further update. Look in the latest issue and in the one for the last day of the month for any month between the present and the month covered by the most recent LSA.
The Code of Federal Regulations is a subject arrangement of all the regulations promulgated in the Federal Register. This compilation allows for efficient access to the regulations. It is divided into fifty broad subject areas called "titles" within which all rules and regulations are arranged. While other codes (such as those for legislation) are usually issued in bound volumes with annual pocket parts for updating, the CFR is totally revised and reprinted annually to include only those items in force as of the date of publication. It is issued in many pamphlet-type volumes that are systematically replaced over the period of a year. This often results in a rather complicated arrangement with some volumes of an agency's regulations being very current while others may be almost a year old. It is therefore very important to note the date on the cover of the CFR volume being used. When using the CFR, be sure to locate the most recent volumes. The Library retains the current and one past year's volumes of the CFR in paper for research puposes, except for Title 3 - The President, which is kept indefinitely. The CFR for ALL years is available on microfich starting with 1938, and is also available in full on Hein Online. The authenticated and official site for the CFR online is http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ .
The library keeps the latest 6 months in aper and ALL earlier issues on microfiche. The authenticated and official site for the Federal Register online is http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ . All years are available on Hein Online.
The Federal Register is published daily, Monday through Friday, except on official holidays. It provides a uniform system for making available to the public regulations and legal notices issued by federal agencies. These include Presidential proclamations, Executive Orders, federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required by an Act of Congress, and other federal agency documents of public interest. In most instances an agency must first publish in the Federal Register a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" so as to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rule making function. The notice includes the proposed rule, methods by which comments may be offered, persons to contact for further information, and reference to the authority under which the agency is promulgating the rule. At a later date (often years later) the agency will publish its final rule. This must usually by done not less than 30 days before the rule is to take effect. Printed with the final rule is information regarding any changes made by the agency, which might be useful to researchers trying to interpret the rule.
Once you have located the releveant regulation in the CFR, check the Federal Register to see if the regulation has been altered or deleted since publication of the CFR volume. Start with the monthly CFR List of Sections Affected (LSA) pamphlets. Look at the date on the cover of the CFR volume being used, and refer to the cumulative LSA pamphlet(s) indexing issues of the Federal Register from that date to the present. Each LSA pamphlet is arranged by title and section of the CFR with references to any new materials appearing in the Federal Register. Proposed regulations appear at the end of the title listing, not in numerical order with existing regulation. Each LSA pamphlet will cover a different time period for different titles, depending on the date of issuance of that title's annual CFR volume. Sometimes more than one LSA pamphlet must be consulted to find all changes affecting a particular CFR title. Since publication of the CFR LSA pamphlets is usually delayed by a month or two behind the Federal Register, consult the table of "CFR Parts Affected" found in the back of each issue of the Federal Register to ascertain changes within the past two months or so. These tables are cumulative through the end of each month, so you should only need to check the last issue of the prior month and the most recent of the current month.