Federal Register Interaction

Federal age ter nc Register 101 in y by MS. A MY BUNK Director of Legal Affairs and Policy Office of the Federal Register interaction The Office of the Federal Register, part of the National · documents that impose a penalty; Archives and Records Administration, publishes regu - · any other documents that Congress requires. lations in the Federal Register , the official “newspaper” of the federal government, every work day. The office The act also requires that these documents are made annually compiles all current regulations into the bound available for public inspection at least one day before volumes of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). they are published in the Federal Register. In 1937, Con - gress amended the FRA to create the Code of Federal How Was the Federal Register Established? Regulations, a codification (numerical arrangement) of The idea for a centralized publication system for exec - all currently effective agency regulations. utive branch documents began during the Great De - pression, when Congress began enacting a host of The Federal Register Act created a partnership between legislation that gave executive branch agencies in - the National Archives and Records Administration, the creased authority to regulate. With this flood of new custodian of the documents, and the Government Print - regulations, it soon became apparent that, because ing Office (the printer) to promptly print and distribute there was no standardized repository, it was difficult the Federal Register. It also established the Administra - for the public and federal agencies to know which reg - tive Committee of the Federal Register (ACFR), chaired ulations were effective and enforceable. by the archivist of the United States, to administer and regulate the Federal Register and the CFR. The other This situation was dramatically highlighted when the members of the committee are the public printer and a Supreme Court decided a case involving an agency that representative of the attorney general. The director of tried to enforce a regulation that had actually been re - the Federal Register serves as secretary of the committee. voked by an executive order. No one—not the govern - ment, not the defendants, not the lower courts—was Publishing a document in the Federal Register provides aware that the regulation had been eliminated. 1 the public official notice of a document’s existence, specifies the legal authority of the agency to issue the In response, Congress enacted the Federal Register Act document, and gives the document evidentiary status. (FRA) in July of 1935. The FRA created the Federal Reg - Each rulemaking document published in the Federal ister as the official daily publication for presidential Register also shows how and when the CFR will be documents and executive agency rule and notice doc - amended to include the new changes. uments and established a central location for filing doc - uments for public inspection. Within a decade of passing the FRA, Congress further refined the rulemaking process by enacting the Ad - The documents that the Federal Register Act requires ministrative Procedure Act, which established a uni - agencies to publish in the Federal Register include: form process for publishing, obtaining comments on, · executive orders and proclamations; and finalizing regulations. This standard rulemaking · documents of general applicability and legal effect; process is known as “informal rulemaking.” The Ad - www.uscg.mil/proceedings Spring 2010 Proceedings 55 There are two types of proclamations, “ceremonial,” which designate special observances, and “substan - tive,” which usually relate to international trade, export controls, tariffs, or reservation of federal lands. Examples of presidential documents that may but do not have to be published are administrative orders, presidential memos, and other miscellaneous docu - ments. Rules and Regulations This section contains documents with final legal effect and general applicability to the public that amend the CFR and will be codified in the annual revision. This includes final rules, temporary rules, interim final rules, and direct final rules, as well as documents that relate to previously published rules, such as corrections and changes in effective dates. Proposed Rules This third section contains documents that announce possible changes to the CFR and solicit public comment ministrative on the proposal, such as notices of proposed rulemak - Procedure Act ing (NPRM) and preliminary rulemaking documents, requires that including advance notices of proposed rulemaking and agencies in petitions for rulemaking. Other miscellaneous propos - most cases als and updates, including documents containing in - issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), pro - formation on public meetings related to an NPRM, are vide an opportunity for public comments, issue a final also published in this section. rule with a concise statement of its basis and purpose, and make the final rule effective a minimum of 30 days Since the early 1970s, the ACFR has required agencies after publication in the Federal Register . to use a standardized format to provide greater unifor - mity and transparency for documents published in the What’s in the Federal Register ? final rules and the proposed rules sections of the Federal It is organized into four main sections, in the following Register. Broadly speaking, the documents contain a order: preamble section, which arranges basic information on · presidential documents, the “who, what, where, when, and why” of a document · rules, for the reader’s convenience. · proposed rules, · notices. In rule documents, the preamble section is followed by the regulatory text. The regulations require that agen - Presidential Documents cies use headings in a particular order in the preamble The presidential documents section contains docu - section of their documents. The headings identify par - ments the president must publish and documents the ticular sections of the preamble as follows: president decides to publish. · agency · action (final rule, proposed rule) In the first category of mandatory publication are ex - · summary ecutive orders, which are the president’s instructions · dates (effective date of the rule, or comment date to executive agencies on how to manage their opera - for an NPRM) tions. Executive orders are numbered consecutively · addresses and reprinted annually in Title 3 of the CFR. · for further information · Presidential proclamations are another category of doc - supplementary information. uments that must be published in the Federal Register . Spring 2010 www.uscg.mil/proceedings 56 Proceedings The supplementary information section of the pream - The CFR is published in a set of about ble contains background information and explains the 220 soft-bound volumes or is available online at basis and purpose of the rulemaking. Agencies also use www.federalregister.gov. the supplementary information section to provide ad - ditional information that is required by law, agency pol - An example of the codification structure is as follows: icy, or executive order. Title: 46: Broad subject area of regulations (Shipping) · Chapter: I: Rules of individual agency (Coast Guard) · Notices Section Part: 10: Rules on a single program or function (Merchant · The final section contains documents describing offi - Mariner Credential) cial actions and functions of an agency that affect the Section: 10.203: One provision of program/function rules · public or provide important information, but do not (Requirement to hold a TWIC and a merchant mariner amend the CFR. They do not impose requirements with credential) general applicability and legal effect, and do not affect Paragraph: 10.203(a): Detailed, specific requirements · a rulemaking proceeding. Some notices are required to be published by law, for For more than 70 years, the Federal Register publication example advisory committee meeting notices, notices system has provided the public with a reliable and cen - of the availability of environmental impact statements, tralized source for the regulations that affect many as - and certain orders or decisions affecting named parties. pects of our daily lives. Together, the Federal Register and the CFR help reduce inconsistencies, conflicts, and What’s in the Code of Federal Regulations? gaps in regulations. As mentioned above, the Office of the Federal Register also publishes the Code of Federal Regulations. The This system also promotes transparency in regulations CFR contains agency rules that first appeared in the by helping FOR MORE INFORMATION Federal Register. you find and research regu - Current executive orders: On the effective date of rule, Office of the Federal Reg - lations on a www.archives.gov/federal-register/ ister editors incorporate the amendments from the rule particular executive-orders/disposition.html into the CFR. Codifying the rules does not change their subject meaning or legal effect, it simply creates an organiza - Federal Register : quickly and www.federalregister.gov tional structure for the rules and allows readers to see easily, which the complete text of an effective rule without having to means you Electronic Code of Federal Regulations: refer back to various issues of the Federal Register. don’t have to http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov maintain What’s New in the World of Regulations Publication? bulky files of In the mid-1990s, the Federal Register and the CFR en - revisions, ensuring they provide you a complete copy tered the

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