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How Laws and Regulations Are Made
Laws and regulations constitute the legal foundation for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s (TTB) mission of collecting the revenue and protecting the public. Congress passes laws that govern the programs of United States’ agencies such as TTB. The laws passed by Congress also authorize government agencies to promulgate regulations to implement the agency’s statutory programs. We are providing a basic description of how our alcohol and tobacco laws and regulations are created and changed, what they are, and where to find them.
Creating and Finding Laws
- A member of Congress introduces a bill in the House or Senate. To see bills Congress is considering or has considered, look on the Library of Congress' Thomas Web page.
- For more information on how bills are written and passed, go to the Library of Congress' Thomas Web page.
- If both houses of Congress pass a bill, it becomes an enrolled bill and goes to the President for signature. If signed by the President the enrolled bill becomes law.
- To see a list of the major laws relating to TTB click here.
- Once a bill is signed into law, it is placed in the Statutes at Large, given a Public Law designation (number) and codified in the United States Code. The United States Code is the official source for all codified Federal laws.
- The United States Code database is available from the Government Printing Office (GPO). GPO is the sole agency authorized by Congress to publish the U.S. Code.
Putting the Law to Work
- A law passed by Congress often includes authorization for the head of a government agency, such as the Department of the Treasury of which TTB is a part, to promulgate regulations to implement that law.
- Regulations establish specific rules that the public must follow in order to comply with the requirements of the law.
- Once the regulation is in effect, TTB then works to help the public comply with it.
Creating a Regulation
- TTB decides that a regulation may be needed based on the enactment of new legislation, the receipt of a petition from a member of the public, or as a result of internal TTB review.
- TTB then creates a proposed rule document (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) and forwards it to the Department of the Treasury for publication approval.
- The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is then published in the Federal Register.
- The public can consider the proposed rule and submit their comments to TTB.
- TTB considers all the comments, revises the regulation if necessary, and issues a final rule document (Treasury Decision) for Treasury approval and Federal Register Publication.
Carrying Out the Law
These are the principal laws enacted by Congress for which TTB has implementing regulations:
Informing the Public
- TTB publishes official notices of its actions, including proposed and final regulations, in the Federal Register. In addition, we place copies of our notices on the TTB Web site.
- We generally allow 60 days for comments on proposed regulations, but we may extend that period or hold public hearings if a proposal is complex.
- During the comment period, anyone may comment on a notice of proposed rulemaking by mail, fax or e-mail.
- At the close of the comment period, we analyze all the comments we received and decide how to proceed.
- Based on the comments, we may withdraw a proposal, issue another notice with an amended proposal, or formulate a final rule (also known as a Treasury Decision).
- When we publish a final rule, we usually allow 30 days between the publication of the final rule and the effective date. For some changes to the rules, we may allow a longer transition period.
- The final rule amends TTB's regulations, which are codified in Chapter I of Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations (27 CFR).
- If you want to petition for a change in the regulations, follow the instructions in 27 CFR 70.701 and send your petition to TTB’s Regulations and Rulings Division.
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