Updating Federal Regulations

Finding current regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is a straightforward task, but it is important to remember to check for currency on any regulation you are citing. Since the CFR is updated daily by the Federal Register, a regulation issued only a few days prior could already be out of date. For this reason a List of Sections Affected (LSA) is published every month. The LSA is cumulative so it is only necessary to check the current month (updated daily) and the previous month. (NOTE: It is important that you check both lists.)

The LSA can be accessed on the Internet

• Current List of Affected Sections
• Last Month's List of Affected Sections

It is organized in column format. (See below portion of the LSA from May 2002)

Example:
CFR PARTS AFFECTED DURING MAY

If the section you are researching is listed in the LSA then there has been a change to the regulation. It is then necessary to look up the Federal Register (FR) notice and read what changes occurred. The column listed on the RIGHT of the LSA is the Federal Register page citation.

To view the notice electronically go to the Federal Register.

To search the current FR, type in the Federal Register page number from the LSA in the form "page#" into the QUICK SEARCH box. To search 1994 (Volume 59) through 2006 (Volume 71), select the Simple, Advanced, or Page Number Search options (below the quick search box). Any of these search options should bring up the change to your regulation.

Here at the Wirtz Labor Library we have hard copies of the current LSA's and the Federal Register dating back to 1936.