What Is It?
The Federal Register was created in 1935 to serve as a record of the rulemaking activities of federal agencies. The Federal Register contains proposed and final regulations as well as notices, executive orders, and other information, as required by the federal Administrative Procedures Act.
There are TWO main purposes of the Federal Register.
Organization
The Federal Register issues are published daily and compiled into one huge continuously paginated volume for each year.
Citation Format
INS Example - 62 FR 12915
This final rule that amended 8 C.F.R. 312.1 was published in the Federal Register beginning on page 62 FR 12915.
62 = volume number
12915 = page number
Official Version
The official version of the Federal Register is the print version published by the GPO.
Online Sources of the Federal Register
Luckily, there are online sources of the Federal Register! See below.
Like many primary sources of law, the Federal Register is available from both the government and commercial vendors.
Print Version
The official print version of the Federal Register is published by the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Office of the Federal Register and is usually only available in libraries since it takes up so much space.
govinfo
The version on the govinfo site is an authenticated copy (certified by the GPO to be true and correct) of the official print Federal Register. The search features on the site make it difficult to search. There is no reason to use this version unless you are looking for page numbers to include in the Bluebook citation format.
federalregister.gov
federal register.gov provides an excellent unofficial version of the Federal Register. The information is organized by agency, has good search features, and is generally user friendly.
Commercial Versions
​Westlaw and Lexis have easily searchable versions of the Federal Register.
The notice of a proposed or final rule contains a lot of information. For both, there is a preamble which explains the new rule or amendment and the reasons for it. For a final rule, there is a summary, contact information, background, summary of public comments, discussion of public comments, regulatory rule certification, etc. The notice also contains the text of the rule and the U.S.C. authority for the rule.
INS Example Continued
This final rule that amended 8 C.F.R. 312.1 was published in the Federal Register beginning on page 62 FR 12915.
