Last revised: August, 2008

Federal Regulatory Information

Scope: This is a guide to the regulatory process as well as a selective list of reference tools for finding federal regulatory publications in print and on the Web. If you have any questions or would like further assistance, please contact the U.S. Government Information, Maps & GIS Services staff at govdocs@umd.edu or 301.405.9165.

The Regulatory Process

The rule making process is a set of formal procedures through which a law, adopted by Congress and signed by the President, is translated into specific written requirements to be carried out and enforced by the executive branch and its federal agencies. These written requirements are called regulations. Federal agencies create itemized procedures in the form of an "agency document" which is published in the daily Federal Register and later codified annually in the Code of Federal Regulations. The primary function of the resultant Federal Register/Code of Federal Regulations system is to inform the public about rules set by federal agencies.

• Federal Register (FR)
  Daily publication of government agency announcements. Announcements are written in "plain-English" and divided into 1) proposed rules, where the public is invited to comment on drafted regulations, and 2) final rules, which have the force of a law, contain effective dates of the effected parties and the text of the actual rules. Regulations published in the Federal Register are cited by volume and page, with the date sometimes added in parenthesis (i.e. 46 FR 3566 (1981)).

  UMCP McKeldin Library, U.S. Government Information:
  Dates:	Collection:	Call numbers:
  1936-present	Database available through Research Port	HeinOnline Federal Register Library UM Only
  1936-1982	U.S. Government Information Microfilm	J1.A2
  1982-1985	U.S. Government Information Microfiche	GS 4.107:
  1985-present	U.S. Government Information Microfiche	AE 2.106:
  1994-present	Online	GPO Access
  Past 3 Years	U.S. Government Information Reference	AE 2.106:
  Note: Also available through LexisNexis Congressional (1980-present) and Westlaw Campus Research (1981-present), UM Only

  Other resources you may use to find Federal Regulations in the Federal Register are:

  • The Federal Register Annual Index
    Coverage: 1936-present
    Location: U.S. Government Information Reference AE 2.106
  
  
  • The Federal Register User Guide
    Location: U.S. Government Information Reference, AE 2.108F32/992

• The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
  The Federal Register is only the first stop on a regulation's journey. The final rules and presidential materials are funneled yearly into the Code of Federal Regulations. Here the general and permanent rules originally published in the Federal Register are systematically arranged under 50 subject titles. The 50 CFR titles are divided into chapters (one for each rule-issuing agency), parts (general topics of regulation), and sections (the actual text of the regulation), each with its own table of contents. Regulations published in the Code of Federal Regulations are cited by title and section numbers, with the date sometimes added in parenthesis (i.e. 40 CFR 211.10 (1978)).

  UMCP McKeldin Library, U.S. Government Information:
  Dates:	Collection:	Call numbers:
  1938-present	Database available through ResearchPort	HeinOnline Federal Register Library UM Only
  1938-present limited 1980's & 1990's	U.S. Government Information Reference	AE 2.106/3:
  1975-present	U.S. Government Information Microfiche	GS 4.108:
  1996-present	Online	GPO Access
  Note: Also available through LexisNexis Congressional (1980-present) and Westlaw Campus Research (1981-present), UM Only

• List of CFR Sections Affected
  The List of CFR Sections Affected is issued monthly and is used to update CFR sections changed by new rules published in the Federal Register. This resource is helpful to check if a regulation is current. It can also be used to find out when a regulation was removed, revised, or moved to a new title.

  UMCP McKeldin Library, U.S. Government Information:
  Dates:	Collection:	Call numbers:
  1949-present	Database available through Research Port	HeinOnline Federal Register Library UM Only
  1949-present	U.S. Government Information Reference	AE 2.106/2: Current issues
  1982-1985	U.S. Government Information Microfiche	GS 4.108/3:
  1985-present	U.S. Government Information Microfiche	AE 2.106:
  1986-present	Online	GPO Access

Note: U.S. Government Information microfilm and microfiche are located in the U.S. Government Information, Maps & GIS Services computer room on the 4th floor of McKeldin Library.

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Locating Regulatory Information

This is a very selective list of tools; there are many more resources online and in print especially for finding older materials.

• GPO Access: Regulatory
  Federal regulatory information and publications including the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations.
  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/regulatory.html
• HeinOnline Federal Register Library UM Only
  Full-text access to the Federal Register, Federal Register Indexes (1939-1995), Compilation of Sections Affected, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1965-2004), and the Administrative Procedure Act (1944-1946).
• LexisNexis Congressional UM Only
  LexisNexis Congressional provides full text searching of the Federal Register (1980 - present) and Code of Federal Regulations (1981-present). It also provides access to the Congressional Indexes, 1789-1969, thought not in full text format.
• LexisNexis Academic UM Only
  Provides full text access to the U.S. Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, and the Federal Register as well as various state level regulatory information. Click on the "legal" tab once you have accessed the database.
• Westlaw Campus Research UM Only
  Full-text access the U.S. Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, and the Federal Register as well as various state level regulatory information. Click on the "law" tab once you have accessed the database.

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Other Useful Resources

• Cornell University Legal Information Institute
  Excellent for browsing or searching for regulations. There are also subject guides to legal issues.
  http://www.law.cornell.edu/
• RegInfo.gov
  Links to Federal Regulatory information. Includes "RegMap," which outlines the regulatory process.
  http://www.reginfo.gov/public/
• Regulations.gov
  Find and read pending regulations posted in the Federal Register. Users may give comments on the proposed regulations.
  http://www.regulation.gov/index.cfm
• Federal Legislative Information
  UM Libraries' guide to U.S. legislative information sources.
  http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/legs.html

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