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Reader Aids
Use these helpful educational articles, tutorials and videos increase your understanding of the Federal Register publication system and improve your FederalRegister.gov skills.
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Office of the Federal Register Blog view
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Federal Register Digitization Project
By Benjamin Jordi Public Affairs Specialist, National Archives and Records Administration Digitized volumes of the Federal Register from 1990-1994 have been published on www.govinfo.gov by the Government Publishing Office (GPO). The bulk upload is the first to be made available to the public as the Office of the Federal Register and GPO digitize the historical issues of the Federal … Continue reading “Federal Register Digitization Project”
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The Federal Register is on Twitter
Follow us: @FedRegister
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Sixth Volume of the Public Papers of President Barack Obama Available
The sixth volume of the Public Papers of President Barack Obama is now available. These volumes are produced right here at the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) by our staff in the Presidential unit. This particular volume is 888 pages and includes the text of his public speeches, news conferences, messages and statements, communications … Continue reading “Sixth Volume of the Public Papers of President Barack Obama Available”
Using FederalRegister.Gov view
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Website Features
Sections We organize published Federal Register documents into six sections, similar to a web journal (Money, Environment, World, Science & Technology, Business & Industry, and Health & Public Welfare). We think these sections include themes that have broad interest and which cover a majority of the documents published in the Federal Register. We feature articles in these sections … Continue reading “Website Features”
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Document Features – Text
Active Links Agency-included links When an agency has included links as part of the document text, we activate those links using the text in the document. The link may not work if the link in the published document contained an error or if the target website is no longer at that location. Automated legal links … Continue reading “Document Features – Text”
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Document Features – Sidebar
Document Utility Bar The utility bar runs along the left side of the document and scrolls with you down the page. You can access the Public Inspection version and the official electronic format of the published document using the 2 bottom icons. And you can print using the printer icon. Sharing You can share (email, … Continue reading “Document Features – Sidebar”
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Commenting on Federal Register Documents
Our “Site Feedback” tool and Federal Register email addresses are only intended for users to submit technical questions and comments on the functionality of the FederalRegister.gov website. These tools cannot be used to submit comments on rulemaking actions or to petition agencies on public policy issues. We have no authority or ability to process comments on … Continue reading “Commenting on Federal Register Documents”
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Understanding Public Inspection
The Public Inspection web page on FederalRegister.gov offers a preview of documents scheduled to appear in the next day’s Federal Register issue. The Public Inspection page may also include documents scheduled for later issues, at the request of the issuing agency. This gives the public access to important or complex documents before they publish in … Continue reading “Understanding Public Inspection”
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Search Tips and Techniques
This site has a basic search tool and an advanced search. The basic search box appears in the main navigation at the top every page. The “Search” pull-down tab in the main navigation shows various search options: Document Search: You can search by citation (for example, enter: ’75 FR 12345′ or ’75 Fed. Reg. 12345′ … Continue reading “Search Tips and Techniques”
Understanding the Federal Register view
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Federal Register Statistics
Statistics Federal Register & CFR Publication Statistics – Aggregated Charts PDF XLS Federal Register & CFR Publication Statistics – Individual Charts Federal Register Pages Published (1936-2015) (PDF) Federal Register Documents Published (1936-2015) (PDF) Federal Register Documents – Annual Percentage Change (1976-2015) (PDF) Code of Federal Regulations Total Pages and Volumes 1938-2015 Code of Federal Regulations Actual … Continue reading “Federal Register Statistics”
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Document Drafting & Research
These links can help you better understand the document drafting process and research Federal Register documents. Drafting Document Drafting Handbook Incorporation by Reference (IBR) Handbook Federal Register Bulletins Final Guidance on Implementing the Plain Writing Act of 2010 (PDF) Federal Register Plain Language Tools PlainLanguage.gov Thesaurus of Indexing Terms List of Subjects by CFR Title GPO Page … Continue reading “Document Drafting & Research”
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Related Resources
Here are external resources that are helpful for understanding the Federal Register, its parent and partner agencies, and the rulemaking process. The Rulemaking Process (PDF) Federal Register 101 (PDF) Federal Register 2.0 Pamphlet (PDF) Office of the Federal Register Brochure (PDF) Public Workshops Tending to the Details of Democracy (Prologue Magazine, Fall 2004) The Electoral … Continue reading “Related Resources”
Government Policy and OFR Procedures view
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About This Site
The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) jointly administer the FederalRegister.gov website. We developed this website to make it easier for citizens and communities to understand the regulatory process and to participate in Government decision-making. Legal Status Website The OFR/GPO partnership … Continue reading “About This Site”
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Contact Us
Send us your questions and feedback: For questions or comments on editorial content, features, or design, email us at: fedreg.info@nara.gov. For questions concerning FederalRegister.gov programming and technical issues, please open a ticket on our support site. For questions on access for the visually impaired, see the Accessibility page of this website. To contact the Office of … Continue reading “Contact Us”
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Privacy
FederalRegister.gov is an authorized service of the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO). We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your visits to this website. We follow OMB recommendations and best practices for protecting Internet privacy. Outlined below is our … Continue reading “Privacy”
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Accessibility
We designed this site following Section 508 and W3C accessibility design guidelines. This site uses text-based files and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files, which are text-accessible through the use of Adobe PDF Tools. See more about Adobe Acrobat Reader and PDF Files below. The OFR and GPO are committed to assisting people with disabilities in … Continue reading “Accessibility”
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FOIA
Federal Register publications, including the FederalRegister.gov website and the various editions of the daily Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Federal Register/CFR indexes, and the Public Laws posted on the Federal Digital System (FDsys.gov) are not subject to the request for records provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Under the FOIA, … Continue reading “FOIA”
Recent Site Updates view
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Welcome to the updated FederalRegister.gov!
When we launched FederalRegister.gov in July of 2010 we had two major goals, to make the Federal Register accessible to more people and to use the power of modern technology to make it easier to understand in the context of the larger regulatory environment. Over the past 6 years we’ve continued to update FederalRegister.gov with … Continue reading “Welcome to the updated FederalRegister.gov!”
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New “Submit a Formal Comment” Feature!
We’re excited to announce the release of our newest feature – the ability to comment on a document without leaving FederalRegister.gov. We’ve been working with the team at Regulations.gov to make this possible and are excited to share it with you all. Previously, whenever you clicked the ‘Submit a Formal Comment’ button on a document … Continue reading “New “Submit a Formal Comment” Feature!”
Videos & Tutorials view
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Using Complex Search Terms
This is a placeholder page within WordPress. This is an interactive page that is served directly from the FR2 application via routing. – BB
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Saving Documents for Later
FederalRegister.gov allows users to save documents for later use via a MyFR feature named ‘clippings’. Documents can be clipped from either the document’s page or from search results. To clip an item look for the flag icon. A simple click on the flag icon with add the document to your clipboard. A MyFR account is … Continue reading “Saving Documents for Later”
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Linking to FederalRegister.gov
If you are referencing documents on FederalRegister.gov you can link to them in a number of different ways depending on the document and your preferred pattern. These various patterns are explained below with examples. Linking to FederalRegister.gov Federal Register documents can be cited in a variety of ways; it may be convenient to link to FR … Continue reading “Linking to FederalRegister.gov”
Developer Resources view
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REST API & Interactive Documentation
Federal Register data originates with the files used to produce the print and PDF editions. During the publication process these are transformed into bulk XML files made available by the Government Publishing Office (GPO). Additional MODS files that contain metadata about each document are also produced at the same time. Because these files are meant … Continue reading “REST API & Interactive Documentation”
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API Clients
Ruby API Client The FederalRegister.gov team maintains a Ruby API client that is available as a Ruby gem. This client gem is used to power the web display of FederalRegister.gov. You can find it on GitHub and RubyGems. Other resources To learn more about our API you can read more here and explore the API with … Continue reading “API Clients”
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FederalRegister.gov is Open Source
Project Source Code FederalRegister.gov is a fully open source project and it’s source code is available on Github. The FederalRegister.gov source code is available in two repositories. The first, federalregister-api-core, contains the code that powers the import of Federal Register data from various sources and serves our API responses. This repo is undergoing active cleanup … Continue reading “FederalRegister.gov is Open Source”