FW ECOL 515: Natural Resources Policy (Fall 2024) : More on federal regulations

Agencies propose, open for comment, and finally publish "Final Rules" in Regulations.gov and the Federal Register.

A citation to the Federal Register may look like this:  80 FR 9218  or like this:  80 Fed. Reg. 9218.

The regulations (Final Rules) passed in a given year are brought together by subject and published annually in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  This process is called "codification."

• The CFR is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. (CFR Table of Contents from the Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute) 
• Each title is divided into chapters, which usually bear the name of the issuing agency.
• Each chapter is further subdivided into parts that cover specific regulatory areas. Large parts may be subdivided into subparts.
• All parts are organized in sections, and most citations to the CFR refer to material at the section level.

A citation to the Code of Federal Regulations often looks like this: 7 CFR 650.22.  

You may need to specify which year/edition of the CFR you'd like to view.

Hein Online Code of Federal Regulations

• Subscription database; available on- and off-campus to UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.
• Contains titles from the first edition, published in 1938, to present.
• Can search by full text, or retrieve items by citation.
• Guide to using the Hein Online version, from Hein Online

Code of Federal Regulations from Govinfo.gov

• Available FOR FREE to the general public.
• Official version, from the Government Publishing Office.
• The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is one title/collection in the larger Govinfo.gov database. To search just the CFR, from the Govinfo.gov home page:
  1. Click the advanced tab.
  2. Click the box next to Code of Federal Regulations under Refine by Collection. 
  3. Type a search term in the second box under Search In.
  4. Click Search.
• Help for using the CFR on Govinfo.gov
• Contains titles from 1996 to present.

Proquest Regulatory Insight

• Contains regulatory histories associated with public laws and executive orders.  These histories are compilations of Federal Register (FR) notices, proposed rules, and rules representing the complete rulemaking process associated with specific Public Laws or Executive Orders.
• Subscription database; available on- and off-campus to UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.
• Detailed guide from Proquest.
• Can search just the Code of Federal Regulations, or specific parts of the CFR, in the advanced search mode.
• Contains full text of the CFR going back to 1977, with partial coverage for 1968-1977.

The Federal Register is a very specialized publication, with specialized types of content.  If you not sure of what you're looking at, or looking for, you may want to consult one of these guides to using the FR.

Section on the Federal Register in Proquest's guide to Regulatory Insight.

Federal Register Tutorial: What it Is and How to Use It

• From the Office of the Federal Register, part of the National Archives.
• Available in two formats
  • Video 
  • HTML
  • PDF (contains 12 separate files) Though the separate files are a pain, this version is more visual; you can see annotated pages of the FR.



Proquest Regulatory Insight

• Contains regulatory histories associated with public laws.  These histories are compilations of Federal Register (FR) notices, proposed rules, and rules representing the complete rulemaking process associated with specific Public Laws or Executive Orders.
• Subscription database; available on- and off-campus to UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.
• Search tips from Proquest.
• Detailed guide from Proquest.
• Can search just the Federal Register, or specific parts of the FR, in the advanced search mode.
• Contains full text of the FR going back to Volume 1, 1936.

Hein Online Federal Register

• Subscription database; available on- and off-campus to UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.
• Coverage goes from Volume 1, 1936 to present.  Updated daily.
• Quick Reference Guide from Hein Online.

Federal Register from Govinfo.gov

• Available FOR FREE to the general public.
• Official version, from the Government Publishing Office
• The Federal Register (FR) is one title/collection in the larger Govinfo.gov database.  To search just the FR, from the Govinfo.gov home page:
  1. Click the advanced tab.
  2. Click the box next to Federal Register under Refine by Collection.  You will have to scroll down the list a ways.
  3. Type a search term in the second box under Search In.
  4. Click Search.
• Help for using the FR.
• Volumes 60 (1995) to present are available in Summary, PDF, text, or HTML format
• Volumes 35 (1970)-59 (1994) and earlier are available in PDF only.

FederalRegister.gov

• Unofficial (meaning "don't cite it in any legal documents"), HTML version of the FR, published by the Office of the Federal Register.
• Some find the format easier to read and search.
• Articles/entries contain links to the official FR documents.
• Coverage goes from 1994 to present.
• Available FOR FREE to the general public.

Historical issues of the Federal Register from the Library of Congress

• PDFs of issues of the FR from Volume 1, 1936, through Volume 58, 1993.
• Available FOR FREE to the general public.

Laws, which are passed by Congress, tend to be fairly broad.  Laws are written by members of Congress (or, more likely, their staff), then altered, debated, and passed by Congress.  Members of Congress can express their opinions on bills "for the record," that is, in meetings and publications of Congress or its committees.  

Regulations, which are developed and enforced by executive branch agencies, or their sub-agencies and bureaus, are much more specific and detailed. 

When developing regulations, executive agencies publish proposed regulations in a publication called the Federal Register, and, in most cases in Regulations.gov .  Members of the public can submit comments on these regulations, and agencies publish summaries of these comments in the Federal Register and Regulations.gov as well.

Guides to the federal regulation (rule-making) process:

• How Laws Are Implemented Infographic (jpeg file) from Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government: covers the process in seven steps.
• A Guide to the Rulemaking Process by the Office of the Federal Register goes into more depth about the process, in a pretty easy-to-read question-and-answer format.