Environmental Regulations and Laws
Regulations
& Proposed Rules New regulations, proposed rules, important notices and the regulatory agenda of future regulations. |
Laws
Public Laws passed by the U.S. Congress and codified in the U.S. Code. |
The Federal Register
The Federal Register is published each business day and includes proposed rules, final rules, meeting notices, public hearing notices and the semi-annual regulatory agenda.
Federal Register - Environmental
Documents
Full text of all Federal Register documents issued by EPA, and of selected
documents issued by other Departments and Agencies divided into twelve
topical categories for easy access (eg. air, water, pesticides, toxics,
waste).
Dockets - Dockets contain information and supporting documentation related to the rulemaking process. Public comments received on rules and proposed rules are maintained in the appropriate Docket. Find information on electronic submission of public comments and data, documents, and the availability of public comments on the Internet.
Federal
Register database
The Government Printing Office (GPO) maintains the official electronic
database that covers Federal Register documents beginning in January
1994.
The Unified Agenda
All agencies publish semiannual regulatory agendas describing regulatory actions they are developing or have recently completed. These agendas are published in the Federal Register, usually during April and October each year, as part of the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.
Search the Unified Agenda This site offers instructions and tips on how to search for Unified Agenda information and upcoming actions.
Code of Federal Regulations
The final regulations published in the Federal Register are collected in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The CFR is divided into 50 titles which represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. EPA regulations can be found in Title 40, Protection of the Environment. Each volume of the CFR is revised once each calendar year. Title 40 is issued every July 1.
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) database available from the Government Printing Office (GPO).
CFR Title 40 : Protection of Environment Full text of CFR Title 40 retrievable by chapters, subchapters, and parts in portable document format (pdf).
The United States Code
The United States Code (USC) is the official record of all federal laws. The US Code is prepared and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives.
The United
States Code (USC) database available from the Government Printing
Office (GPO).
This database contains the laws of the United States in effect as of
January 1996. For more recent enactments one must turn to the uncompiled
statues or Public Laws in the form passed by Congress.
Thomas - Legislative Information
on the Internet
available from the Library of Congress is a resource providing
access to current legislation, uncompiled Public Laws, the Congressional
Record, committee information, and information about the legislative
process.
Major Environmental and Administrative Laws
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Environmental Laws - Summaries, guides and fulltext of more than a dozen major laws that form the legal basis for the programs of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
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Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA)/Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) statues, RFA/SBREFA full text