The Federal Register contains most routine publications and public notices of United States government agencies. In the Register, federal agencies list new proposals, requests for public comment, notices about public meetings where proposals will be discussed, and the text of final rules issued by each agency. It also contains executive orders and other presidential documents. In essence, the FR is the way for the government to think aloud to the people. The FR is published by the Government Printing Office; it is compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration. It was first published in 1935.

Each issue of the FR is organized into four categories:

• Presidential Documents (executive orders and proclamations)
• Rules and Regulations (policy statements and interpretations of rules by federal agencies)
• Proposed Rules (petitions by agencies for assistance in rulemaking and other proposals)
• Notices (scheduled hearings and meetings open to the public, grant applications, and administrative orders)

Not all documents created by agencies are published in the FR. The government has the power to classify documents so that they are not published. The agencies required to publish in the Register are those who are required to promulgate regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations.

Each agency is required to list the sections of the CFR that will be affected by the proposals or rulings in the day's register. The List of CFR Sections Affected is published at the end of each year.

The FR is available online from 1994. Federal depository libraries also receive copies of the text, either in paper or microfiche format. The FR is not small; the 2003 FR weighs in at greater than 70,000 pages of text.

Any agency proposing a rule in the FR must provide contact information for people and orginazations interested in making comments to the agencies. The agencies are required to give due diligence to these concerns when it publishes its final rule on the subject.

There are no copyright restrictions on the FR as it is a work of the U.S. government. Citations from the FR are Volume FR page number, e.g., 65 FR 66742.

Although the FR is quite important from a legal and historical perspective as a record of the regular business of American government agencies, few people (even lawyers) read it regularly due to its massive volume and the dry style of its content.

External links

• The Federal Register at the GPO, online in both text and PDF, from 1994 on (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html)
• Introduction to the FR by NARA (http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/publications/about_the_federal_register.html)
• List of CFR Sections Affected by the FR (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/lsa/index.html)