>> Ann Hemmens: Welcome,
my name is Ann Hemmens.
I am your presenter,
and you are here
for the Tracing Federal
Regulations webinar.
I am a senior Legal
Reference Librarian here
at the Law Library of Congress.
And as I said, I will be
presenting slides here today
and my colleague Jason
will be assisting me
with tech issues along the way.
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Okay, so welcome again
to Tracing Federal
Regulations webinar.
This is part of the law
library's orientation
to legal research webinar
series, which is designed
to give you a basic
introduction to legal sources
and research techniques.
These orientations are
offered once a month
on a rotating basis.
The other two in the series
are the US Case Law webinar.
We should have one in April,
and the US Federal Statutes
webinar later in the Spring.
Please visit our Legal Research
Institute website to sign up.
The website addresses
law.gov and then click
on Legal Research Institute.
I will try to do my best
to leave time at the end
of this one hour webinar
to answer your questions.
Again, please submit
any questions
through the Q&A box in Zoom.
So today we are talking
about US federal regulations
or the rules promulgated
by US federal agencies.
Rules and regulations are
created by a federal body
such as an agency board or
commission, and they explain how
that body intends to carry out
or administer a federal law.
In this presentation, I'll
be using the words rules
and regulations interchangeably,
as synonyms.
Okay, let's begin.
I like to start webinars by
giving everyone a roadmap
of where we're going
during the presentation.
So first, I'm going to give
you a very basic overview
of the federal regulatory
process.
How are federal executive
branch bodies such as agencies,
boards or commissions, able
to make law via regulations,
and what processes do they
have to follow to do so.
Next, I'm going to talk
about the steps involved
in promulgating or creating a
rule, particularly what needs
to be published in the two main
federal publications containing
regulations, which are the
Federal Register and the Code
of Federal Regulations.
And we will talk about what
order this publication process
must follow.
Finally, the bulk of this
presentation will be in figuring
out how to trace a regulation
from its final form in the Code
of Federal Regulations back
to its formative stages,
processes in the
Federal Register.
And finally, back to
its agency docket,
which contains the files
related to the creation
of promulgation of a rule.
So let's get started.
Here on the screen, you have
examples of two regulations.
Regulations affect many
aspects of our daily lives,
and we might not realize it.
Just by way of example, here are
two such federal regulations.
On the left, we see a
regulation from the US Food
and Drug Administration, an
agency within the Department
of Health and Human Services.
The regulation deals
with requirements
for gluten free labeling
of food,
as found in happens
to be 21 CFR 101.91.
More specifically, we see this
provision includes definitions
for words or terms that are
used in that regulation,
including what the labeling
claim of "gluten free" means.
On the right side of this
screen, we see a regulation
from the Federal
Aviation Administration,
which is within the
Department of Transportation.
This regulation deals with what
portable electronic devices may
or may not be operated when
on a US civil aircraft.
Back when we were traveling
much more frequently,
you may recall hearing an audio
announcement when on a plane,
usually provided before the
plane takes off or lands
about turning off devices.
Well, this regulation
includes an exception,
and this we're looking
at is 14 CFR 91.21.
Now, let's move on to talking
about what administrative
bodies do.
Because the US Congress,
and its members in the House
of Representatives in the
Senate cannot be experts
on all the details
of all things,
Congress will often pass a law,
which you may also hear me
call an act or a statute,
that provides a general
directive, the broad strokes,
and within that law, it
grants and administrative body
or agency, the regulatory
authority
to issue detailed rules
and regulations designed
to implement that law.
For example, the US
Congress passes a law
such as the Clean Air
Act, in which they declare
that the increase in air
pollution is posing a danger
to public health, agriculture
and property, and that they want
to do something to help reduce
and prevent air pollution.
So within the act, they
delegate the authority
to an executive branch agency
such as the US Environmental
Protection Agency
to create the detailed
and specific rules
or regulations to
implement the law.
The result is the
creation of regulations
such as those related
to air quality standards
for air pollutant emissions.
So the initial law, the
Clean Air Act, in our case,
is called the enabling
or authority statute,
because it gave the executive
agency the authority to act.
In other words, the
law is authorizing
or enabling the agency
to create the regulations
to put that law into action.
There are largely two reasons
that Congress would delegate
this authority to agencies.
One, an agency has a particular
subject matter expertise
on a topic or issue
addressed by the statute.
For example, the Department
of Labor would be expected
to have extensive
knowledge about labor
and employment issues.
And/or the US Congress wants to
provide a mechanism for the law
to be more easily adapted
and respond to change
since federal regulations can
often be updated more quickly
than federal statutes.
But despite these
positives, Congress realized
that agencies are not
headed by elected officials
and that the regulatory process
may not be very transparent
and not uniform.
So, they passed the
Administrative Procedure Act
in 1946.
It is often just
referred to as the APA.
The goals of the APA were to
require increased openness
about agency organization,
procedure and rules,
allow for increased
participation by the public
in the rulemaking
process, and to ensure
that agency procedures
follow uniform standards.
So let's talk a little bit about
rules and regulations produced
by administrative bodies.
Agency rules and regulations
carry the force of law,
as long as they follow the
standards laid out by statute,
including the processes
laid out in the APA.
There are a few types of
rules that are exempted
from these requirements
for increased openness,
including rules regarding
procedure and the interpretation
of regulatory language, policy
statements and rules related
to a military or
foreign affairs function,
or where public procedure
is impractical, unnecessary
or contrary to the
public interest.
But almost all other rulemaking
processes fall under the notice
and comment rulemaking process
also called the informal
rulemaking process, which
is covered by the APA.
And this is the process
we will focus on today.
Here we are looking at a notice
and comment rulemaking
process chart.
On the top of the
screen you see this --
the six steps of the
chart, and we are going
to start the process at the top
and work our way to the bottom.
But before we start
with step one,
I want to mention the big
picture, the overview.
In the Fall of each year, an
agency gives everyone notice
of their regulatory priorities
for the year and information
on the most significant
regulatory activity planned
for the upcoming year.
They publish this as the
agency's regulatory plan.
The regulatory plan is
combined with information
about the agency's
current regulatory
and deregulatory activities
called the unified agenda,
which is published on a semi
annual basis by the Office
of Information and Regulatory
Affairs within the Office
of Management and
Budget, often called OMB,
which is within the Executive
Office of the President.
All right, now back
to the chart.
At the top, we see the first
step in this process is
that the agency drafts the
proposed rule or regulation,
also called a notice of
proposed rulemaking or NPRM,
and publishes it in
the Federal Register,
asking the public
to comment on it.
Typically, this proposed rule
publication includes background
information, description
of the rules purpose,
legal basis, et cetera.
The Federal Register,
which we'll learn
about today is a
daily publication put
out every day the
government is working.
There's not an explicit amount
of time that agencies have
to accept comments, but it is
typically set at 30 to 90 days
and it is sometimes
expanded for additional time,
if a rule is getting
a lot of attention.
This is done by publishing
an extension notice
in the Federal Register.
The agency reviews
these comments,
takes these into account
and drafts a final rule.
The final rule is published
in the Federal Register,
giving a general statement
of the basis and purpose
and addressing the comments
in a general fashion,
and how they responded
to those comments.
All the new rules or amendments
to existing rules et cetera,
made by the final rule
are then incorporated
into the publication
called the Code
of Federal Regulations
or CFR for short.
The CFR is published in
print and free online
and is updated annually and
we'll be talking about it today.
Before we go on, you can
see the asterix on step one
and four in the chart.
They indicate that if a proposed
or final rule is considered a
significant regulatory action,
under executive order 12866, it
must be reviewed by the Office
of Information and Regulatory
Affairs in the Office
of Management and Budget
before being published.
We could do a whole class
on what is considered a
significant regulatory action,
but it's largely referring to
regulations that might have an
over $100 million
effect on the economy.
As you saw on the prior chart,
publication is a critical part
of the informal notice and
comment rulemaking process.
I briefly mentioned the
two major publications
in this federal rulemaking
process.
We'll discuss both of them
in more detail later
in the presentation.
But I want to explain the main
differences between the two now.
The Federal Register is where
you will find proposed rules,
also called NPRMs, any notices
like those extending a
comment period and final rules.
It is published almost
every business day
and is set up chronologically.
So think of the Federal
Register as a snapshot
of what agencies are
doing on a certain day,
without any consideration
of the topics involved
or where the rules are in
the regulatory process.
There are additional
things published
in the Federal Register, such
as notices of agency meetings
or hearings about
a rule that members
of the public may
want to attend.
Executive orders from the
president and more are included
in the Federal Register.
In contrast, the Code
of Federal Regulations
or CFR is the collection
of all the regulations
currently enforced
and organized by subject.
All new rules will
be added to the CFR
as it is updated
annually in print.
So changed rules will be removed
or amended as appropriate,
and new rules will be added in.
Think of the CFR as a snapshot
of all the current regulations
in force at a given time,
organized by subject matter.
For example, all the regulations
about labor or working
from the Department of
Labor are in one place.
So to summarize, the Code
of Federal Regulations
is a resource
that shows all the regulations
that are in effect at its time
of publication, whereas the
Federal Register is simply a
chronological publication
showing the regulatory actions
of all administrative bodies
as they are happening
on a daily basis.
All right, so let's piece this
together and walk through how
to trace a regulation from
its final form in the CFR back
to the proposed rulemaking
in the Federal Register,
and then further
back to the docket
or the agency's collection
of documents produced during
the rulemaking process.
We're going to walk through
each of these four steps
of a research strategy
for regulations.
We will start with a citation
to a regulation in the CFR,
because typically that is
where our questions begin.
We have a citation that we
will use in our webinar today,
we're going to look
at 29 CFR 1630.1.
If you don't know what that
citation means, don't worry,
we'll be talking about
that in a minute.
These regulations deal
with implementing the
Equal Employment provisions
of the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
Next, we'll find the regulation
in the CFR and look to the notes
to determine further
information.
First, to find what statutory
provision has granted authority
to the agency to
create this regulation.
We will use the authority note
to find the enabling
or authority statute.
And we'll use the source
notes to find the final rules
that created and then amended
the CFR section of interest
to us as they were
originally published
in the Federal Register.
Finally, we'll use identifying
numbers we find in the preamble
to the final rule in the Federal
Register to find the notice
of proposed rulemaking and its
related docket information,
which will lead us to materials
such as public comments,
related agency reports,
transcripts of town hall
meetings, et cetera.
Okay, I brought back the chart
with six steps in the notice
and comment rulemaking
process, again,
called informal rulemaking,
but I reversed it.
At the top of the
screen, you will see
that we are beginning
our research at the end
of the regulation
publication process.
We are starting with the
currently enforced regulation
as found in the Code of
Federal Regulations, or CFR.
Then we'll work backwards
all the way
to when the first
proposed rule was published
in the Federal Register.
To make your way through
regulations research,
it's important to first
understand the structure
of the CFR.
The CFR is organized
by subject matter,
and it is hierarchical
in structure.
It's divided into 50
numbered titles based
on large general subject
areas like energy,
agriculture, or labor.
Each title is then divided
into chapters, typically named
after the administrative
body promulgating
or making the regulations.
These chapters are then divided
into parts and sub parts based
on more specific subject areas,
narrowing down into sections,
and the section is sometimes
called the basic unit
of the CFR.
So I like to think of the
CFR as an idea funnel,
starting with big picture
ideas at the top and narrowing
through chapters, parts and
finally down to sections,
and you are typically citing
to a specific section.
Let's explore a citation to a
specific section in the CFR.
Here's the citation for the
CFR section we're using today.
And this citation follows
the bluebook citation system
which is a citation system
used by lawyers in the US.
Other citation systems
you might have used
in the past include
Chicago or APA or MLA.
Starting on the left, the
first number you see is the
title number.
Let's see, title 29.
Spoiler alert that
happens to deal with labor
because that is what we
are researching today.
After the CFR letters
and the sections symbol,
which is that squiggly symbol,
you will see two numbers
separated by a period.
The whole thing together
is your section number.
But you will notice that the
first number before the period
correlates to the part.
Part 1630, in which
that section is found.
And finally you see the
date of publication.
Remember the date is important
because it is letting
a researcher know
that you are talking about
the CFR section as it appeared
in the addition of the CFR
published in the year 2020.
Remember, the CFR is
published annually
so the language could
be different
in prior or later years.
The year in the parenthetical
does not tell you
when the regulation first
came into existence.
But by the end of the
webinar, you'll be able
to understand how
to determine that.
Unlike a lot of other
publications that are published
at one time, typically
at the end of the year,
the CFR is published cyclically
throughout the year based
on the title number.
As you see on the screen,
there are 50 titles to the CFR
and they're divided
into four groups.
Group one is updated in
January of each year.
Group two is updated in
April each year and so on.
Each yearly update gets
a different colored spine
on their printed volumes.
So you can tell at a glance
by looking at the bookshelves
in your library how up to
date your print collection
of the CFR is.
As it notes on the
screen, the 2020 editions
of the CFR have a hot
pink color on their spine,
but the 2019 volumes had a brown
color on the spine, et cetera.
So. Okay, so now that we
know what we are looking for,
we need to find out how
to actually find it.
You can now find almost
all of the editions
of the CFR online for free.
The government publishing office
or GPO is the official publisher
of federal government documents.
GPO has PDFs of all the print
copies of the CFR from 1996
to the present time, available
on its govinfo.gov website.
We'll talk about the list
of CFR sections affected
and the eCFR resources
a bit later.
For issues of the CFR from
its first printing in 1938
up to 1996, where the GPO
coverage begins, you can look
to the Law Library of
Congress's CFR web page,
we are in the midst of
migrating all of our PDF copies
of the print CFR so we are
still missing additions
from the 1970s to the 1990s.
But eventually, all copies
of the CFR from its beginning
in 1938 up to 1995
will be at the Library
of Congress website
you see on the screen.
If you have access to
subscription sources,
like those listed on the screen,
including HeinOnline, Westlaw
and Lexis, of course, please
feel free to use those as well.
Let's look at the
govinfo.gov website
from the US government
publishing office.
Here you see a screenshot
and you see
that there are several options
to get you your CFR
section of interest.
You can browse items
by category,
you can use an advanced
search feature.
And you can use a
citation search
if you know your
exact CFR citation.
And these are all highlighted on
the screen in the orange boxes.
And we'll take each
of these in turn.
So here we're considering
the browse
by category option on govinfo.
If you choose to
browse by category tab
to locate regulations, I would
suggest choosing the regulatory
information from the
list on the left side
of the screen as highlighted.
This will provide links to
only regulatory resources,
including the Code of
Federal Regulations,
the Federal Register and more.
When you choose the Code
of Federal Regulations
from the list, you will be sent
to a landing page listing all
the available CFR additions
by year browsable
by title, chapter,
part and section number.
If you do not have a citation
to a specific section of the CFR
and instead want to do a
keyword or subject search.
I strongly suggest using the
advanced search tab on govinfo.
Because if you do not and you
use the general broad Google
like one search box, you
will get a lot of results.
Thousands of results probably.
So the advanced search lets
you choose what collection
of material you want
to search in.
In our case it would be the CFR.
You can see we've highlighted
that with a checkbox.
And you can limit to a date
range because as we saw,
govinfo has all the
CFR additions back
to the mid 1990s to the present.
Once you select these
things, just put your keyword
in the search box
and click Search.
In our specific case, though,
we've been given a
citation 29 CFR 1630.1.
So we can use the citation tab.
To do so, simply select
the resource being cited
from the drop down list
provided, then select the date.
If you don't know whether
your title has been published
in the current year, you can
select most recent from the list
and govinfo will
determine that for you.
Next, put your title
number, in our case 29,
and then the part,
in our case 1630.
And you can put the
number after the period
into the section
box, in our case one.
So let's see what
that looks like.
This is an example of the
search form completed.
All of the information is input.
So what are we looking at?
This is our sample CFR
section that we retrieved
from our citation search
that we just completed.
For 29 CFR section 1630.1.
It's a PDF image, we're
in title 29 of the CFR.
Starting at the top left of
the screen, you see we are
in part 1630, Regulation
to Implement the Equal
Employment provisions
of the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
Below that in the orange
square is a table of contents
for this part, listing
the section numbers
and their titles.
Notice it ranges from
section 1630.1 to 1630.16.
And below that is our section
1630.1 with the title Purposes,
Applicability and Construction.
It starts with subparagraph
A and rolls
over into the next column was
sub paragraph B, et cetera.
Okay, this is a blow up of
the language that's found
in paragraph A within our
section 1630.1 describing the
purpose of the regulation.
And again, the section continues
on with paragraph
B on the next page.
Just wanted to give you
an easier to read image
of our particular CFR section.
Now, what if you wanted
to use the Law Library
of Congress online collection
for searching or browsing?
So we'll break down the
information found in a section
of the CFR in more
detail shortly.
But before that, I just want to
show you what the Law Library
of Congress's collection
looks like.
In case you'd need to do
that historical research
before the 1990s.
As mentioned earlier, it's a
collection still in development.
Currently, the materials
from 1938 when the CFR came
into existence until about
the 1960s are available
and we'll eventually
have material up to 95.
You can do a keyword search
via the search box at the top
of the screen or browse by
date range from the facets
on the left side of the screen.
And again, this collection
is made up of individual PDFs
of CFR sections from
print copies of the CFR
and they are all keyword
searchable within the PDF itself
by using the find
feature in Adobe Reader.
Okay, what about
updating our regulations?
In our situation,
we want to make sure
that we have the
most current version
of our regulation
at 29 CFR 1630.1.
Title 29, the CFR was most
recently published on July 1,
2020, so we need to determine
if any changes have been made
to our CFR section between
July 1, 2020 and today.
To do so, we use a resource
or tool called the List
of CFR Sections Affected
otherwise commonly known as LSA.
This may be a little
cumbersome to walk through,
but we want to show it to you.
Again, if you have questions
about this, remember,
the law library is
available for questions
in the future using our
Ask a Librarian source.
On the slide, you
see a screen capture
from GPOs govinfo.gov
website for the LSA.
It is a cumulative
list put out monthly
that contains information
about all of the proposed, new,
and amended federal regulations
that have been published
in the Federal Register
since the most recent revision
date of all CFR titles.
The LSA is organized by title,
chapter and section number,
so you simply turn to
your title number to see
if your section is listed.
If your section is listed, that
means that there is something
that has been published
in the Federal Register
that likely affects
your section.
The entry will then list the
page in the current volume
of the Federal Register on which
you find the item of interest
and you need to read it.
To get to the LSA simply use the
govinfo.gov link I've given you
on the screen or use the browse
by category link I've
showed you earlier.
Let's look at the latest
issue of LSA to see
if there are any changes
to our CFR section.
All right, on the left side
of this screen is one
image to focus on.
We need to see if there
have been any changes
to our regulation since our
CFR title was published July 1,
2020.
So we're using the List of
Sections Affected, or LSA,
we need to work through
this two step process.
First, we are consulting
the February 2021 edition
of the LSA, which will capture
any changes or new rules
between the beginning
of July 2020
through the end of
February 2021.
Look to that image on the
left side of the screen.
Note that not all sections
are listed under our title.
Again, that's because the
section is only listed
if it has been amended since
the last publication of the CFR.
And we've circled in
red on the far left,
that there is no indication
for Section 1630 being
there, which is a good sign.
That means there have
been no publications
in the Federal Register
impacting us during the time
period covered by that LSA.
All right, now we need
step two, we need to see
if there have been any changes
to our section promulgated
between March 1, 2021 and today.
To do that, we review
the most recent issue
of the daily Federal
Register and look
in the readers aid
section at the end
of the Federal Register
volume for the cumulative list
of CFR parts affected
during that month.
So on the right side,
you see a screen grab
of the most recent Federal
Register from yesterday --
no, from -- we've got one
that's dated today, March 18.
And it's the CFR parts
affected during March
and you'll see circled in red,
the lack of our section 1630.1
which is good, meaning no
changes for us to worry about.
Okay, again, if you have
questions about the --
how you use the LSA to
update your research
for the regulations in print,
contact the Law Library
will be glad to help.
All right, another option we
have here is the electronic Code
of Federal Regulations.
Now if you don't have time
to check the most recent
published edition of the CFR
and then double check the
language is still good using
that List of Sections Affected
or LSA there is another resource
you can use, the electronic Code
of Federal Regulations
simply called the eCFR.
The eCFR is the most
current online version
of the CFR, it's updated daily.
The data title was most recently
changed due to an update
from the Federal Register as
seen in the last updated column.
Remember, this is a
compilation of the CFR
with any new final rules
that were recently published
in the Federal Register.
And added in any old rules that
were amended and then changed
in the CFR are represented.
Eventually the same
language will be available
in the print CFR and the
PDF version we were looking
at a moment ago.
Remember that print CFR
is updated once a year.
You can browse by title
number, we want title 29
that contains regulations
related to work or labor.
You can also do a
keyword search,
maybe the phrase Americans
with Disabilities Act via the
search button at the top left
of the screen or the search
eCFR box at the top right.
If you know your CFR
section, you can use the go
to CFR reference box in
the middle of the screen.
I do want to point out that as
it says on the eCFR website,
it is the unofficial
version of the CFR.
So why does that matter?
If you're citing to CFR sections
and documents you're submitting
to court, you may
be required to cite
to the official print
version of the CFR
and the Federal Register pages
on which any final rule
promulgated before the next
printing of the CFR would be,
you need to be aware
of this caution.
Remember, the official
version as published
by the GPO is available
on govinfo.gov website.
But for everyday normal
use the language found
in eCFR is very trustworthy,
and I use it in my research
at the reference desk.
We are using the new beta
version of the eCFR at this URL
that you see, the
ecfr.federalregister.gov.
The eCFR we previously used
was located at www.ecfr.gov.
That web page may still
be available but we want
to make sure that you knew
the new beta site as well.
Okay, let's talk
about authority notes.
So now that we know the language
in our section 29 CFR 1630.1.
And we know that the
language has not changed
since the last printing
of the CFR back in July,
we can turn back to our CFR
print pages to do more research.
So I want to start with
something that we get asked
about at the reference
desk, which is the question,
why is the agency allowed
to issue this regulation?
Who gave the agency the
authority to do that?
The answer is found
in the enabling
or authority statute
passed by the US Congress.
As I mentioned earlier
today, for a federal agency
to issue a regulation with
the force and effect of law,
it must derive that authority
from a grant of power
by Congress via statute.
To find the specific statute
in which Congress
authorized an agency
to promulgate a regulation,
you have to look
to the authority note connected
to your section or
part of the CFR.
You can typically find an
authority note at the beginning
of a larger unit of the CFR such
as a part and or a sub part.
The citation is typically
printed just
after the initial table
of contents listing
of the sections contained
in that part,
and it includes the
word authority.
On the screen, on the left side,
you see that CFR page
contained our part
in our section 29 CFR 1630.1.
And highlighted in
the orange box,
and blown up in the little pop
out window is the
authority note.
It tells us the statute
or legislation
that gave the Department
of Labor
through the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission,
the authority to promulgate
these rules can be found
in the Americans with
Disabilities Act as amended,
which is found in title 42
of the United States Code
in sections 12116 and 12205a.
So that is the enabling or
authority statute in question.
So for more information
about the US code, again,
if you're interested, we do have
a federal statutes webinar you
can take.
All right, source notes.
The other piece of information
that researchers typically
request and that we want
to explore today is how
to determine what
changes have been made
in this regulation over time.
In other words, how do I trace
this regulation back in time
to determine when, how, and
why the regulation was created,
and why any changes
might have been made?
A regulation source notes
will provide breadcrumbs
to get us started
on this search.
Specifically, they tell us about
the final rules as published
in the Federal Register
that gave us rise to
or amended an existing
section of the CFR.
Sometimes people call this
tracing the regulatory history
of a CFR section, similar
to when people research
the legislative history
of a statute.
So where do we find
these source notes?
A general source note typically
appears at the beginning
of a larger unit of the CFR
such as a part or subpart.
If any amendments
to a particular section
have been made,
or a section has been
added at a later date,
a source note will appear in
brackets following that section.
Why would there be more
than one source note?
Because an agency might
have created an entire part
within a title of the
CFR via final rule,
and then later determine
that the language
of the section included within
that part needed to be changed.
Thus, they could have
returned at a later date
with another final rule
amending the language
in just that section.
So you might need to know
about the original language
of that section as it
was initially created,
and also the changes made
in the later amendment.
The scenario I described
is what happened
with our regulation
29 CFR 1630.1.
Looking at the right side of
the screen, we again are looking
at the text of our CFR section.
The orange box on the left side
of the document follows the
table of contents for our part.
It is the source note for our
part, and it is referring us
to a citation found in volume
56 of the Federal Register
on page 35734, dating
from July 26 of 1991.
But keep looking and you'll find
another source note at the end
of our section 1630.1.
This source note is
highlighted in the orange box
on the far right side of the
document, it's referring us
to the citation for the
history of an amendment
to our section found originally
in 76 Federal Register page
16999 from March 25, 2011.
These source notes are
typically leading you
to that regulations
final rule publication
in the Federal Register and
specifically to the page
where your section appears.
On this slide, I've
repeated the explanation
of the two source notes in our
situation, I've included a blown
up view of that source note so
you can read the text better.
The source note for the entire
part is found at the top,
starting with the word
source in all the caps,
and we find the reference
to volume 56
of the Federal Register and
page 35734, where we'll find
that final rule as
published in 1991.
Lower down on the screen
again, you see the text
of the Federal Register entry
for the changes or amendments
that were made to our
section in the year 2011.
All right, so back to our chart.
So to figure out how to
look up these final rules
in the Federal Register, we
have to take another step back
in our notice and comment
rulemaking process chart
and talk about the
Federal Register and how
to find information in it.
As we've discussed earlier
in this presentation,
the Federal Register is a
daily publication that deals
with actions of the
executive branch
to the federal government,
each print copy
of the Federal Register will
have its date of publication,
and will be a snapshot of
agency action on that day,
including notices of public
meetings, for example,
proposed rules and final rules
that administrative bodies
released on that day.
It also includes
presidential executive orders.
So this is a daily
publication and within it,
the contents are
organized by agency.
It is a chronological
publication.
So let's look at a citation.
In this example,
we're using again,
the Blue Book citation style
that I mentioned earlier.
Here I'm using the final
rule we found referenced
in the source note
after 29 CFR 1630.1.
First, you'll see the
title of the regulation.
Regulations to implement the
Equal Employment provisions
of the Americans with
Disabilities Act as amended.
After the title, you'll
see a volume number
for the Federal Register
of interest, ours is 76.
Because the Federal Register is
laid out chronologically rather
than by subject, we'll be citing
to volume numbers rather
than title numbers.
Another difference in
Federal Register citations is
that you're pointing to pages
within a volume rather
than section numbers.
Here the page numbers
are shown --
are showing you the page
on which the final
rule begins 16977.
And then the page on which the
text of your or our CFR section
of interest can be found.
Page 16999.
Next, you'll see a note
about the date the Federal
Register issue came out,
March 25, 2011.
And finally, you'll see a
parenthetical note telling you
which section of the CFR is
being created or amended.
And as you'd expect,
this is our section
of interest today 29 CFR 1630.1.
We're going to see
what these pages
in the Federal Register
look like in a moment.
But first, I want to talk
about how to find it online.
The good news is that
you can find all copies
of the Federal Register
online for free.
Recently, the government
publishing office released all
copies of Federal Register
from its beginning in 1936
to the present on govinfo.gov,
they're available in PDF format.
You can also access them
from the Law Library
of Congress's free online
collection, 1936 to 1993.
If you have access to a
subscription database as listed,
for example, HeinOnline, Westlaw
and Lexis you can do that.
But I want to focus on the other
two free resources I've listed
here; federalregister.gov
and regulations.gov.
Federalregister.gov, is a
very helpful page to use
if you already have a citation
to the Federal Register
for issues published
in 1994 to the present
because you can enter the
citation and be taken directly
to the rules Federal
Register page,
and then you can download
PDF copies of the print pages
of the Federal Register
where the rule appears.
We'll look at that in a moment.
Regulations.gov does not have
the search by citation ability
of federalregister.gov
but it is helpful
for finding agency docket
information related to a rule,
such as public comments
submitted
about the proposed rule, town
hall transcripts and more.
We'll look at that later.
Okay, so federalregister.gov
offers PDF copies
of the Federal Register
from 94 to the present,
but enhances the material
by allowing you to search
by citation, subject
and/or agency and keyword.
You can also set up email
alerts on your searches
so that you're warned
when something happens
on your search results.
Here's the homepage of
federalregister.gov.
You can search for material
or browse to material.
Starting at the top of the
page, you'll see an orange box
around the toolbar at the top.
It contains a cue search button
and a search documents box.
Additionally, in the middle
of the screen is a
global search box
where you can enter your
citation or keyword.
If you prefer to browse by
date or agency name or topic,
you can select the Browse
button on the toolbar
at the top of the page.
Locate regulations by assigned
index terms called topics,
for example, maybe
animal welfare
or apricots via the Browse
menu at the top of the page,
then select topics, CFR indexing
terms or via the explore topics,
CFR indexing terms option in the
bottom right corner of the page.
If you get confused
while on the site,
you can use the reader
aids button for more help.
They have videos and tutorials.
Here is an example of
the browse by topic page
on federalregister.gov.
The agencies have applied topic
headings to their documents.
You can select a topic from
the alphabetical arrangement.
They include topics from
barley to banking regulations
or hazardous waste
to wildlife refuges.
See proposed and final
rules on a certain topic,
just click the linked topic
on the right hand side.
You can also search the topics
by keyword using the
topic filter search box
on the left hand side.
Next, I want to show
you some search results
but my screen is hovering
and not moving forward
at the moment.
Bear with me.
Sorry about that.
I knew we'd have to have
some technical problems.
All right, I'm going to try to
unshare my screen and reshare
and see if that solves
our problem.
Bear with me.
I'm going to attempt
one more time.
Okay, my colleague
Barbara is going to try
to open the PowerPoint
on her end.
So bear with us.
All right.
I am unmuted and I see
federalregister.gov sample
research results from my
colleague I do believe,
and I'm going to keep talking
unless I hear someone tell me
that I am not there.
Okay, great.
Thank you, Barbara.
Here we go.
So now I want to show
you what it looks
like when we have a known
Federal Register citation
that we search with.
On the screen in the find box,
you'll see the citation
I entered 76 fr 16999
into the global search
box on the homepage
to pull up the results page.
Remember, this is the final
rule from 2011 related
to our CFR section that
we found in a source note.
Notice that the website
is asking me if I want
to open the rule page
for my rule of interest.
Even though the page number
I gave was for the page
on which the language showing
how section 1630.1 is amended,
not the first page of the rule.
This is very helpful
to the researcher.
So I am going to take
their suggestion and go
to 76 fr 16977, which
is the first page
of the final rule I'm seeking.
If you were doing
a keyword search,
rather than citation search,
I could use the filters
on the left hand side.
All right, looking at our sample
rule page, having selected
that federal register,
this is our first page
of the final rule
that I was seeking.
Here you'll see information
about, on the left hand side,
the -- under the agency,
we see that this was
from the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission.
Under action, it tells us
whether the document we're
looking at is a notice
proposed rule or final rule.
Ours is a final rule.
Under summary, we get a
brief paragraph or so summary
of the rule, and
then the text of it.
Looking to the right side of
this screen, you'll find a link
to a PDF copy of the print
pages of the Federal Register.
The page range of the document
in the Federal Register
in our case, it was that
large 41 page range starting
at 61 -- 16977.
You'll see the citation
to this section of parts
of the CFR being changed.
And I want to draw
particular attention to some
of the numbers listed here on
the right side of the page,
including the RIN and
the document number.
All right, moving forward
to important information
in the Federal Register.
You'll likely see that these
three numbers listed document
number, regulation
identifier number or RIN
and document docket number.
Okay. What are they?
Document number is a unique
number assigned by the Office
of the Federal Register
to each document published
in the Federal Register,
whether a notice proposed rule
or a final rule.
The document number in --
for our final rule is
2011-6056 assigned by the Office
of the Federal Register.
Next are the RINs or
regulation identifier numbers.
They are unique eight
digit code made
up of two four character
groups separated by a dash,
which started to be assigned
to each regulatory process
around the year 2000.
It identifies a specific
individual regulation
under consideration.
It is assigned by the Regulatory
Information Service Center.
And finally, the docket number
or docket ID, which is assigned
by the agency promulgating
the rule,
links all of the
docket information
for one regulation
via this number.
I think of the docket as a big
file folder, a box at the agency
with the proposed rule, any
notices, any public comments,
transcripts of public meetings,
petitions or reports submitted
or created by the agency,
et cetera, sitting in it
and this docket number is
listed on the top of the box.
The docket number is assigned
by the agency promulgating
the regulation,
as it identifies the document
within the agency's
internal filing system.
So again, it's assigned by
the agency who made the rule.
If you are going to
do docket research,
write down both the RIN
and the docket number,
so you have them ready
if you're asked for them.
So let's see where we
can find these numbers
and other information about the
regulation in the print copy
of the Federal Register.
Here on the screen, you see
the PDF image of the first page
of our final rule, which starts
on page 16977 of our volume 76
of the Federal Register.
I know the print is small.
Sorry about that.
But here I want to show you
what it actually looks like.
Starting at the top of the
page, you can see the volume,
page and date information
for the Federal Register.
Working our way down the page,
starting on the left side
of the screen you
see information
about what CFR part is
being amended again,
our 29 CFR part 1630.
The RIN for the regulatory
process is posted there
and the title of the final rule.
Below that you see the name
of the agency issuing
the rule again,
EEOC and the action, final rule.
This should all sound familiar.
We were looking at
this a minute ago
on federalregister.gov
in an HTML format.
Next you see contact information
for the individual at the agency
who is in charge of this rule.
This is important to know
in case you have any issues
finding docket information
for the rule or have
questions in the future.
Next is the beginning of
what we call the preamble
to the final rule.
The preamble starts with the
history of the regulation,
including information
about the proposed rule,
also known as notice
of proposed rulemaking,
that was previously published
in the Federal Register.
You can use the citation
here to find the NPRM
in the Federal Register,
if you want to go back
to that original
regulatory language proposed.
In our situation, it's referring
us to the proposed rule
that was published in
the Federal Register
on September 23,
2009, at 74 fr 484431.
Okay, and continuing
on, turning the page
in our Federal Register example,
this is the next
page in our volume.
Continuing in the preamble, we
see a section called summary
in response to comments,
in which the agency talks
about the comments they received
from the public after publishing
that notice of proposed
rulemaking.
The agency will typically
provide the total number
of comments, but they will
likely not address each comment
in detail.
Instead, they will group
comments based on the topic,
issue or theme they discussed.
They will summarize the
comments on each topic and talk
about why they did or did
not change the language
in proposed rules based
on those comments.
Next, you will see a
citation to the docket number.
In our case, that gives
us the number you need
to find these comments in
the docket file at the agency
that promulgated the rule.
Again, the EEOC.
Moving forward, let's go back
to our chart of the notice
and comment rulemaking process.
So now after reading the
preamble of the final rule,
we have information about
how to find the notice
of proposed rulemaking
in the Federal Register
and the docket information
attached
to the rulemaking process
with the docket number.
And here is an -- I realized I
only have three minutes left,
so I will be going
a bit quickly,
but bear with me, folks.
So next we're going to look at
the regulations.gov web page,
which actually is one
great place to look
for that docket information.
Regulations.gov was
created to promulgate --
to promote public involvement
in the rulemaking process
by allowing people to draft
and submit their public comments
directly on the website,
and by allowing people to access
scans of docket information.
directly from a regulations
landing page, you'll see the --
let's see most agencies
participate in regulations.gov.
However, some national security
and military administrative
bodies do not.
For more information about what
agencies don't participate,
you'll see the link provided
on the bottom of the slide.
And going forward, we're
going to look at a screenshot
of regulations.gov here.
It recently revamped its look
and you will find a video
and introductory information
on the website if you'd
like to get an overview.
Much like federalregister.gov,
you can do a keyword
search or browse.
One thing I want
to note however,
is that unlike
federalregister.gov,
you cannot simply enter a
Federal Register citation
and be taken to the notice of
proposed rulemaking of interest.
Instead, I would suggest
using the information we found
in the preamble of the
final rule to do searches.
For example, you could use the
RIN number or the docket number
in the global search box
that you see on the screen.
Next is a screenshot
of a search result.
So we used our RIN in
the global search box,
and this is what we see.
There are three types of items
organized into the tables.
There are dockets,
documents and comments.
I can narrow the
results by the facets
on the left side of the screen.
The facets will vary
depending on the type
of material you are viewing.
I selected the document
type of proposed rule.
And on the next screen, we
see what that would give us.
Here we're viewing the
Notice of Proposed Rule much
like federalregister.gov,
it gives me information
about the notice of proposed
rulemaking and the text
as proposed in the
Federal Register.
Of particular interest is the
comments section that is linked
on the left side of the screen.
And here we see a
screenshot of that comment.
Those were all submitted
on the proposed rule.
For the comments submitted
online the text is linked
and for comments submitted
via mail a PDF scan is
actually attached.
Finally, you can search
across the full text
of all comments submitted by
keyword, which can help you
if you're only interested
in what people had to say
about a specific aspect
of a proposed rule.
Are all the comments
available On regulations.gov?
No.
Agencies review all submissions.
However, some agencies
may choose to redact
or withhold certain
submissions or portions thereof,
such as those containing private
or proprietary information
or appropriate language
or duplicate near
duplicate examples.
And this qualifying
language is explained
in more detail on
regulations.gov.
Now, we are seeing a screenshot
of a sample docket page
from regulations.gov.
And again, you can
explore this in the future
for more information
about other types
of materials an agency would
hold in its docket file.
Why don't we go ahead
-- probably we're --
that's an example of
how to submit a comment.
A few additional resources
that you can access at any time
in the future on regulations.
And finally, I think we
are at -- yes, bingo 12:01.
Sorry for running
to the last minute,
but I want to make sure you
have the Ask a Librarian form
if you have questions.
And I don't see any questions
posed in the Q&A box.
But if there are questions,
one of my colleagues can
verbally tell me, but otherwise,
thank you so much for
attending today's session.
We appreciate your patience
with our technical difficulties.
And again, when you exit today,
hopefully you will receive a pop
up exit survey that we hope you
take the time to participate in
and consider attending
a future webinar.
Thank you very much, everyone.