Sources for Federal Regulations

Federal rules or regulations are one of the sources of law created by the agencies. There is no practical difference between rules and regulations, hence they are often simply called regulations. Federal regulations are first published in the Federal Register and later codified by subject matter in the Code of Federal Regulations. Federal regulations carry the force of statutory law.

Regulations are a form of delegated legislation. The agencies' power to regulate in their particular areas has been delegated to the agencies by Congress. Thus, Congress may terminate an agency at any time and thus end its regulatory power.

Federal Register

Published daily, except Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, the Federal Register is arranged in alphabetical order by agency. Each volume covers a calendar year and is continuously paginated. It includes: Presidential documents, notices of agency meetings, proposed rules, final rules, CFR parts affected, and Reader Aids.

Sources for the Federal Register:

  • Print: Pappas Reading Room (current 6 months) and Law Annex (older issues)
  • Microform: Law Micro (microfiche 1981 to date; microfilm 1936-1980)
  • Online:

Code of Federal Regulations

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) provides subject access to regulations. It contains fifty titles, similar but not identical to the titles in the United States Code.

The CFR is arranged by title, chapter and subchapters, parts, and sections. Understanding this arrangement is crucial to locating and updating regulations in print, because different tools refer to different portions of this arrangement.

The Code of Federal Regulations is republished in its entirety every year, on a quarterly basis: Titles 1-16 are updated as of January 1st, Titles 17-27 are updated as of April 1st , Titles 28-41 are updated as of July 1st, Titles 42-50 are updated as of October 1st.

Sources for the Code of Federal Regulations:

Page maintained by Raquel Ortiz
Last updated: March 2009