Abbreviations

ANPRM -- An Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is a preliminary notice, published in the Federal Register, announcing that an agency is considering a regulatory action. The agency issues an ANPRM before it develops a detailed proposed rule. The ANPRM describes the general area that may be subject to regulation and usually asks for public comment on the issues and options being discussed. An ANPRM is issued only when an agency believes it needs to gather more information before proceeding to a notice of proposed rulemaking.

CFR -- The Code of Federal Regulations is an annual codification of the general and permanent regulations published in the Federal Register by the departments and agencies of the Federal Government. The Code is divided into 50 titles, and each title covers a broad area subject to Federal regulation. The CFR is keyed to and kept up-to-date by the daily issues of the Federal Register.

EO -- An Executive Order is a directive from the President to executive agencies, issued under constitutional or statutory authority. Executive orders are published in the Federal Register and in title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

FR -- The Federal Register is a daily Federal Government publication that provides a uniform system for publishing Presidential documents, all proposed and final regulations, notices of meetings, and other official documents issued by Federal dep artments and agencies.

FY -- The Federal Fiscal Year runs from October 1 to September 30.

NPRM -- A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is the document an agency issues and publishes in the Federal Register that describes and solicits public comments on a proposed regulatory action. Under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553), an NPRM must include (at a minimum): a statement of the time, place, and nature of the public rulemaking proceeding, a reference to the legal authority under which the rule is proposed, and either the terms or substance of the proposed rule or a description of the subjects and issues involved.

PL -- A Public Law is a law passed by Congress and signed by the President or enacted over his veto. It has general applicability, as opposed to a private law that applies only to those persons or entities specifically designated. Public laws are numb ered in sequence throughout the 2-year life of each Congress; for example, PL 104-5 is the fifth public law of the 104th Congress.

RFA -- A Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is a description and analysis of the impact of a rule on small entities, including small businesses, small governmental jurisdictions, and certain small not-for-profit organizations. The Regulatory Flexibility Ac t (5 U.S.C. 601) requires each agency to prepare an initial RFA for public comment when it is required to publish an NPRM and to make available a final RFA when the final rule is published, unless the agency head certifies that the rule would not have a s ignificant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

RIN -- The Regulation Identifier Number is assigned by the Regulatory Information Service Center to identify each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda and The Regulatory Plan, as directed by Executive Order 12866 (section 4(b)). Additionally, OMB has asked agencies to include RINs in the headings of their Rule and Proposed Rule documents when publishing them in the Federal Register to make it easier for the public and agency officials to track the publication history of regulatory actio ns throughout their development.

Seq. No. -- The Sequence Number identifies the location of an entry in the printed edition of the Unified Agenda and The Regulatory Plan appearing in the Federal Register. Note that a specific regulatory action will have the same RIN throughout i ts development, but will generally have different sequence numbers in different editions of the Unified Agenda and The Regulatory Plan.

USC -- The United States Code is a consolidation and codification of all general and permanent laws of the United States. The USC is divided into 50 titles, and each title covers a broad area of Federal law.