What's Inside this Collection.
About This Collection
The Federal Register is an official daily publication of the United States Government. It is published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and is updated every federal working day. The collection currently provides access to issues from January 2010 through August 2011.
The Federal Register contains the official text of:
- Federal Agency Regulations
- Proposed Rules and Public Notices
- Executive Orders
- Other Presidential Documents
The Federal Register informs citizens of their rights and obligations and provides access to a wide range of federal benefits and opportunities for funding. Some of the frequently requested materials found in the Federal Register include information on grants and Relative Value Units (RVU), known as the Unique Physician Fee Schedule (RVUs are released once a year, usually during November).
Each issue of the Federal Register is organized into four categories:
- Presidential Documents, including executive orders and proclamations
- Rules and Regulations, including policy statements and interpretations of rules
- Proposed Rules, including petitions for rulemaking and other advance proposals
- Notices, including scheduled hearings and meetings open to the public, grant applications, and administrative orders
History of the Publication
The Federal Register publication system was established on July 26, 1935, as an official legal information service of the United States government. It functions under the authority of the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register (ACFR), and operates through a statutory partnership of the National Archives' Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). The first issue of the Federal Register was published on March 14, 1936, and contained only 11 pages. The largest annual edition of the Federal Register was published in 2008 and contained 79,435 pages. The Federal online version of the Federal Register commenced on January 1, 1994.