Agencies get their authority to issue regulations from laws (statutes) enacted by Congress. In some cases, the President may delegate existing Presidential authority to an agency. Typically, when Congress passes a law to create an agency, it grants that agency general authority to regulate certain activities within our society. Congress may also pass a law that more specifically directs an agency to solve a particular problem or accomplish a certain goal. An agency must not take action that goes beyond its statutory authority or violates the Constitution. Agencies must follow an open public process when they issue regulations, according to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) . This includes publishing a statement of rulemaking authority in the Federal Register for all proposed and final rules.
Authority for the creation of rules comes from laws codified in the United States Code
The Federal Register is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices.
If you would like to change the date of the issue, you can do so by using the calendar on the right hand side of the screen. Coverage goes back to 1994. To view older Federal Registers you will need to speak with the Government Documents librarian.
You can change your page to sort by date using the either the Newest or Oldest button on the top of your results.
Clicking on the title of any rule will bring you to the record and full-text for the rule.
: Submit public comment on proposed rules
: Read public comments on proposed rules
: Email and permalink
: Open up full-text pdf
To change your sorting preferences use the dropdown tab on the top right-hand side of your results.
The Unified Agenda provides uniform reporting of data on regulatory and deregulatory activities under development throughout the Federal Government, covering approximately 60 departments, agencies, and commissions. Each edition of the Unified Agenda includes regulatory agendas from all Federal entities that currently have regulations under development or review. Agencies of the United States Congress are not included.
The Regulatory Plan, which presents agency statements of regulatory priorities and additional information about the most significant regulatory activities planned for the coming year.
The United States Code is the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is divided by broad subjects into 53 titles and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives. The U.S. Code was first published in 1926. The next main edition was published in 1934, and subsequent main editions have been published every six years since 1934. In between editions, annual cumulative supplements are published in order to present the most current information.