The New Deal era of the 1930s resulted in a marked increase in federal regulation. At that time, there was no central repository for federal rules and regulations. Executive branch agencies would print regulations in different publications such as gazettes, bulletins, and notices. To simplify public access to administrative law, Congress passed the Federal Register Act, 49 Stat. 500 (1935) (44 U.S.C. Chapter 15), requiring that the National Archives publish all rules and regulations in the Federal Register. The first Federal Register was issued on March 14, 1936.
Materials published in the Federal Register include Presidential documents (proclamations, executive orders, and other executive documents); notices of proposed rules, hearings, and meetings; proposed rules and regulations; and rules and regulations adopted by executive agencies. The Federal Register is published every federal work day.
Since 1938 adopted rules and regulations are also published in the Code of Federal Regulations. See 44 U.S.C. s. 1510. Regulations are arranged by subject and agency, and organized into 50 different titles. Many, though not all of these titles, correspond to similar U.S. Code subjects. Within each title, regulations are organized by agency.
CFR Volumes are now updated once each calendar year and is issued on a quarterly basis:
Titles 1-16 January
Titles 17-27 April
Titles 28-41 July
Titles 42-50 October
Note that the official version of the CFR is the print version (or equivalent PDF) published by the U.S. Government Printing Office. To cite regulations not yet appearing in the print CFR, cite to the Federal Register as described in Blue Book Rule 14.2.
