User Guides Subject Guides > Government, Law & Politics — Federal Regulations

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What are Federal Regulations?
Searching for a current Regulation
Searching for an older Regulation no longer in print
Sources for Regulations

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What are Federal Regulations?

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Administrative and regulatory agencies are created by Congress to carry out legislation. To do their work, agencies were given the power to promulgate regulations (also known as “rules”) and hold semi-judicial hearings. Their orders, regulations, and decisions have the force of law.

The Federal Register Act, passed in 1935, established the Federal Register as the daily gazette for executive and administrative rulings. All executive orders and administrative regulations must be published in the Federal Register if they are to be legally binding. An amendment to the Act created the Code of Federal Regulations which arranges all effective regulation in a subject compilation and is revised annually.

Searching for a current Regulation

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Online

1. Search the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) available through GPO Access or LexisNexis Academic. Searches may be conducted by keyword or citation.

2. To see if any regulations have been updated since the latest revision of the CFR, search the Federal Register, available through GPO Access or LexisNexis Academic. Searches may be conducted by keyword or by CFR or Federal Register citation.

Print

1. Consult the index volume of the Code of Federal Regulations or the Index to the Code of Federal Regulations to identify the relevant title and part.

2. Use the contents section at the beginning of each part to identify the relevant section.

3. Check the Cumulative List of CFR Sections Affected to see if the specific section has been modified or changed.

4. Check the “List of CFR Parts Affected” in issues of the Federal Register since the last Cumulative List of CFR Sections Affected or the CIS Federal Register Index for the most recent changes.

1. Search the Federal Register online if the Regulation was issued during the years covered in GPO Access or LexisNexis Academic.

2. Search the hard copy of the Federal Register by consulting the annual index published at the end of each volume or by consulting the CIS Federal Register Index.

3. While the Library, GPO Access, and LexisNexis Academic retain only the latest edition of the CFR, several other HELIN libraries own previous editions. Consult the CIS Index to the Code of Federal Regulations to identify the relevant title and part and then consult the HELIN Library Catalog to find which library owns the desired edition.

URI Govt. Pub. GS4.107:  1936-1984.

URI Govt. Pub. AE2.106:  1985- .

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/browse.html   1993- .

LexisNexis Academic  1980- .

Federal Register. Daily; monthly indexes cumulate throughout the year.

Includes all federal regulations required by Congress to be published as well as Presidential proclamations and executive orders. Each issue contains a comprehensive contents section listing by agency all documents in that issue and a guide noting which regulations were affected by these documents.

URI Govt. Pub. Index Area KF49 .C622  1984-1998.

CIS Federal Register Index. Weekly, monthly, and semiannual cumulation.

Published privately, an easier-to-use index of the Federal Register than the official version. Indexes by subject, agency name, and CFR section number.

URI Ref. KF70 .A3  Latest edition only.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html   Latest edition only.
LexisNexis Academic  Latest edition only.

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Annual.

Codification of the regulations published in the Federal Register, the CFR is divided into 50 titles (broad subject areas). Each title is in turn divided into chapters generally corresponding to issuing agencies, and into parts. An “index volume” arranged by subject and agency names identifies the appropriate title and part for the user.

URI Ref. KF70 .A345  1985-1994, 2001.

Index to the Code of Federal Regulations. Annual.

Commercially published index that is more comprehensive and detailed than the “index volume” that is included with the Code of Federal Regulations. Index is by subject, agency name, and geographical location.

URI Ref. KF70 .A34  1949- .

Code of Federal Regulations. List of Sections Affected. Monthly, with quarterly cumulations.

The “List of Sections Affected” is designed to lead users of the CFR to amendments and changes published in the Federal Register. The January, April, July and October issues are retained until the December cumulation is received.

Govt. Pub. Ref. AE2.108: F31/2

The Federal Register: What it is and How to Use it. 1992.

This is a handbook developed by the Office of the Federal Register. It provides a basic overview of the federal rulemaking process and discusses how to use both the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations.

http://www.regulations.gov/

Regulations.gov. 2004- . Updated daily.

An interagency database which posts regulations at all states of the administrative rulemaking process. Users may also submit and view comments on proposed regulations. Searches may be conducted by topic, keyword, agency, date, and citation in the CFR.

For assistance
If you need further assistance, please contact the Government Publications Office, University Library, (401) 874-2606. If the office is closed, please consult the Reference Desk, which may be reached at (401) 874-2653. You may also contact the government publications subject specialist, Deborah Mongeau, at (401) 874-4610 or dmongeau@uri.edu.

K.S. Nilsen 1971; rev. 10/72; rev. A. Shaw 9/76; rev. T. Reynolds 1/81;
rev. D. Mongeau 4/87, 3/98, 5/04