Federal Register 101

1 55 ProceedingsSp rin g mil/proceedingsThe Office o f the Fed eral Re gi st er, part of the Nati on alArc hive s and Records Admi nist rati on, pu bl ishes regu -lati ons in th e Federal Reg ister, the of ficial new sp ape r of the Federal g overnment , eve ry work day. The offi cean nua lly com piles al l cu rrent regu lat ions in to the bo undvolume s o f th e Cod e of F ede ral Re gu lations (C FR) .How Was the Fed eral Re gi ste rEst ablished? Th e idea f or a cent ral ized pu blic at ion system for exec -ut ive br an ch docum en ts beg an duri ng the Gre at De-pres sion , whe n Con gres s bega n enac ting a host oflegi slat ion th at gav e execu tive br anc h agencies in -creased auth ori ty t o regula te. Wit h this flood of ne wregu lati ons, it soon beca me a ppa rent tha t, becau sethere was no stan dard ized repo sito ry, it was diff icultfor the public and Federal ag enc ies to kno w wh ich reg -ul ati ons were ef fectiv e a nd en forceable.

2 Th is si tua tion was dram at ically highligh ted wh en th eSup reme Court decide d a ca se involvi ng an agency thattri ed to enforce a regulat ion t ha t h ad actually been re -voke d by a n ex ecuti ve o rder . No on e n ot the go vern -ment , not the defe ndant s, no t the lowe r cou rts wasawar e that t he reg ula tion had been eliminated .1In re spons e, Cong ress ena ct ed th e Federal Register Act(FR A) i n July of 1935 . T he FR A cr eat ed t he Federal Reg -iste ras the offic ial dai ly pub lica tio n for presidentialdocu ments and ex ec utiv e a gen cy rule and not ice doc -um ent s and es tablis hed a cent ral location for filing doc -ume nts for public i nspec tion . Th e doc ument s t hat the Fed era l R egist er A ct requiresage nc ies to pub lish in the Fe der al Re gi sterinclude: execu tive ord ers an d pro cla mat ions; do cument s of genera l applica bilit y a nd legal eff ect; do cum ents tha t impo se a pen alty; an y o ther docu men ts that Co ngress requires.

3 Th e a ct also req uires th at the se do cu men ts ar e ma deava ilabl e f or pu blic ins pec tio n a t least one day befor ethey are pu blis hed in the Federa l Regi 19 37, Con -gres s amen ded th e FR A t o create the Cod e of Fed eralRe gul atio ns, a co di fica tion (nu mer ical ar ran ge me nt ) ofall c ur ren tly ef fect ive agen cy regu lations. The Fede ral Re gi st er Act cr ea ted a partnersh ip be tweenthe Nat ion al Ar ch ives an d Re cor ds A dministration, thecu stodi an of the docu ments, a nd the Gove rnme nt P rint -ing Off ice (the prin ter) to prom pt ly pri nt and distributethe Fe de ra l Regist al so esta bl ished the Ad min istra -tiv e Comm ittee of the Fe de ral Re gist er (AC FR), chairedby the ar ch ivist of t he United Stat es, to adm inister andreg ulate the Fe der al Reg ist erand the CF R. The o therme mb ers of t he com mittee ar e the publi c p rinter and arep resen tat ive of the attor ne y ge ne ral.

4 The di rec tor ofthe Fede ral Regist erse rve s as se cr etary of the blis hing a do cumen t in the Fede ral Regis ter providesthe p ublic o fficia l no tice o f a docum ent s e xist en ce,spec ifies the legal au thor ity of the agen cy to issu e thedoc um ent, an d gives the docu men t eviden tiar y s rule ma ki ng doc ume nt pu bli shed in the Fe deralRegist eral so sho ws ho w and wh en the CFR wil l b eamen ded to inc lude t he new c ha in a dec ade of pas sing the FR A, Congress furthe rref ined the rule ma ki ng pr oce ss by en ac tin g th e A d-mi ni str ati ve Proc edu re Ac t, wh ich establis hed a uni-form pr oce ss f or pu bl ishing , ob taining comments on,and fina lizing re gul at ions . T his st andard rul em aki ngpro ces s is know n a s inform al rul emaki ng. The Ad -Fe deral Register 101by MS. AMYBUNKD irect or of L egal Af fairs and Po licy Office of th e F eder al Regi st erinteragencyinteractionmi nist ra ti vePr oce du re Actre qui res thatage nc ies inmost casesissu e a notice of pr opos ed rulema king (NP RM), pro -vide an opportuni ty f or pu blic c omm ents, iss ue a finalrul e wi th a concis e s tatem ent of its basis and purpose ,and ma ke t he final ru le effe ct ive a m inimum of 30 daysaft er pub licati on in the Fed er al Re gi at s i n t he Fe der al Regi st er?

5 It is or ga ni zed into fou r main sect ions, in t he fo llowingor der : pr esi denti al doc ument s, rules, pr oposed ru les , noti esid ent ial D ocum entsThe pre side ntial do cuments secti on c on tain s docu -me nt s the presi dent mu st pu blish and documents t hepr esi den t deci de s to pu blish . In the first catego ry of ma nda tory publica tion a re ex -ecu tive o rders, whi ch are the pre side nt s ins tructio nsto exe cut ive a gen cies on ho w t o man age their o per a-tion s. E xecutiv e ord ers are nu mbered c on secu tiv el yan d repri nted ann ua lly in Title 3 of the CFR. Pr eside nt ial p roclamat ions a re anot her cate gory of doc -um en ts t hat must be pu blis hed in the Fed eral Re gis ri ng 2 01 scg .m il /pr oceedi ng sTher e are two typ es of pr ocla ma tion s, cer em on ial, wh ich de si gn at e spe cia l observance s, an d substan -tive , wh ich usu al ly rel at e to internationa l trad e, ex po rtcon tro ls, tar iffs, or res er vat ion of fed era l lands.

6 Exa mpl es of p res iden tial doc um en ts t hat may but d ono t have t o b e p ubli shed are admin istrati ve or de rs,pr es iden tial memo s, and other misce llan eous docu -ments .Rul es an d Regu lation s This sec tio n con tains doc ument s wit h final legal effectand gener al a pplica bility to the pu blic th at am end theCFR and wi ll be c odif ied in the ann ua l r ev ision. Th isinc lude s final rules, temp orary rules , inter im final rules ,and direc t f ina l r ules , as well as documen ts tha t re lateto previo usly pu blis hed r ules , s uch as corrections andchanges in eff ec tive dates .Pr opo sed R ulesThis th ird sec tio n c onta ins docu me nts th at announ cepo ssi ble change s to the CF R an d sol icit publ ic com men ton th e pro po sal, s uch a s no tic es of proposed rulemak -ing (NPR M) and prelim inary rulema king docume nts,incl udi ng advanc e noti ces of propos ed rulemaking andpetitio ns for rulem aking.

7 Other miscellan eou s propos -als and up date s, includi ng docum ents containi ng i n-for mat ion on pu blic meet ings related to an NPRM, areals o pu blis hed in this sec tio e t he ear ly 1970s , the ACFR ha s requir ed agen ciesto use a st and ar dized f ormat to pro vid e gre ater unifor -mity and tr ans parenc y for document s publi she d in thefinal rul es and the prop os ed rul es se cti ons o f the Feder alRe adl y s pea kin g, t he d ocume nts con tain apr eam bl e se ct ion , wh ich arran ge s basi c info rmation onthe wh o, what , wh ere, whe n, and why of a doc umentfor th e read er s convenienc e. In r ule do cuments , t he preamble sec tion is followed bythe reg ula tory t ext. The r egu latio ns require that agen -cies use head ings in a part icu lar order in the pream blesect ion of th eir d ocumen ts. The head ings identify par -tic ular sec tio ns of th e preamb le as follow s: agenc y ac tio n ( final r ule, pro po sed rule) su mm ary dat es (e ffec tive dat e of the ru le, o r co mment d atefor an NPRM ) add res ses for furth er in formatio n su pplemen tar y inf ormatio n.

8 57 ProceedingsSp rin g mil/proceedingsThe s upplem ent ary inf orm ation sec tion of t he pream -bl e con tains ba ckg round inform at ion and explain s t hebas is an d p urp os e of the rulemak ing . Age ncie s al so usethe su ppl em entar y informa tio n sec tion to pr ov ide ad -dit ion al inf ormatio n that is requir ed by law, ag ency pol -icy, or ex ec utive tice s Sec tio nThe fina l se ction c ontains docum en ts des crib ing offi -ci al action s and functions of an agency that affect th epu bl ic or provid e important inf or ma tio n, bu t d o notamen d the CFR. They do not impose req uirem ents wit hge ne ral applicab ility and legal ef fec t, and do not af fecta rul emaking proc eeding. Some notice s a re required to be pu blish ed by law, forexa mple advisory committee meeting notices , no ticesof the a vailability of environmental impact statements,and certain order s or decisions af fec ting na med s in t he Cod e of F eder al Regu lations?

9 As men tioned above, the Office o f the Feder al Regist eral so pu bli she s t he Code of Fed er al Regu lations. TheCFR con tains age ncy rules that first appeared in theFe dera l Regi ster .On th e effec tive date of ru le, Off ice of th e Feder al Reg -ister edi tors incorporate the amen dments from the rul einto the CF R. Codifying the r ule s does not c hange the irme an ing or leg al effect, it s imply c reates an o rganiz a-tion al struc ture for the r ules an d allows r ead ers t o seethe complet e te xt of an effectiv e r ule with out havin g torefe r back to va rious issu es of the Federal Reg ister . Wh at s New in the World of Regulatio ns Pu bli cation? In the mid-1990 s, the Feder al R eg isterand th e CFR en -ter ed th e di gita l a ge whe n all O ffi ce of the F edera l Reg -ister public at ions w en t onli ne. And in the spring of200 8, we launched a new websi te, www.

10 Feder alregis , where y ou can find lin ks to the Federal R egis terand CFR in e ither tex t form or as a pdf t hat lo oks iden -tica l t o the cor responding print edition. Fr om th is sit e,you ca n also link to the electronic CFR (e-CFR), a cur -ren t ver sio n of the full CFR that is upda ted d aily and in -cludes rece nt ly published rules .2Fi nall y, as p ar t o f t he launch of the ne w we bsit e, th e Of -fice of th e Federal Register s public inspect ion f ile is n owava ila ble online . In the pa st, v iewin g a document onpu bl ic in spect ion meant coming to our off ice in Wa sh -ingt on, Now, no matter whe re you are i n the worl d,yo u can ac cess the Federa l Regi sterwebsi te to s ee whatdocu men ts will be publ ished in the next day s issue. Fo r m ore than 70 yea rs, the Fed era l Reg isterpublicationsys tem ha s pro vi ded the pub lic with a reliabl e and ce n-tra lized source f or the regu lat ion s tha t affect many as -pec ts of our da ily liv es.