Code of Federal Regulation Index in the United States
The Code of Federal Regulations
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and a related publication, the Federal Register, contain rules and regulations which have been promulgated by administrative agencies of the federal government. The C.F.R. is related to the Federal Register in the same way that the U.S.C. is related to the Statutes at Large.
The C.F.R. is an annual cumulation of final rules and regulations arranged by subject. Like the U.S.C., the C.F.R. is divided into 50 titles, and although the numbers are sometimes similar, C.F.R. citations in no way correspond to U.S.C. citations. Title 1 contains General Provisions, Title 2 is reserved for future use, Title 3 contains Presidential documents and regulations, Title 4 through 50 are broken down into subjects arranged alphabetically from Accounts to Wildlife.
Citations to the C.F.R. are made up of titles, chapters, parts and sections. Title 49, chapter VII, part 701, section 8 is written 49 C.F.R. 708.1 (chapters are not given as part of the citation) Rather than issuing the whole set at one time, the C.F.R. is revisited annually according to a quarterly schedule. At present it is:
- Titles 1 through 16 as of January 1
- Titles 17 through 27 as of April 1
- Titles 28 through 41 as of July 1
- Titles 42 through 50 as of October 1
Finding Aids
The C.F.R. has its own index volume which contains topics and subjects covered in the various titles, chapters and parts of the C.F.R. Annotated codes (U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S.) will often list following each section of a statute, although not every statute will have corresponding C.F.R. material. For some areas, looseleaf publications are the easiest and fastest source for federal regulations. Tax and labor are two areas where looseleaf publications will print the statutes and related regulations in a single source. Often the best place to start is in a law review or other journal article on the topic in question. The article will provide relevant C.F.R. cites, as well as statutes and cases. Every C.F.R. entry has a SOURCE (where it first appeared in the Federal Register) and an AUTHORITY (the U.S.C. citation for the enabling legislation which gives the agency its authority to promulgate that regulation).
Updating
Once the appropriate C.F.R. cite has been located it is important to make sure the regulation is still in effect, as regulations tend to change more frequently than statutes. There are three steps to updating the C.F.R.
- Start with the List of Sections Affected (LSA). The L.S.A. comes out monthly, but the issues for March, June, September and December correspond to the printing schedule listed above. March is for titles 17-27, June is for titles 28 to 41, September is for titles 42 to 50 and December is for titles 1 to 16. These issues also contain changes for the other titles through the end of that month. For example, 49 C.F.R. chap. VII part 701 section 8 (i.e. 49 C.F.R s 701.8) you would start in the previous September L.S.A., because September is for titles 42 to 50.
- After you have checked the appropriate quarterly L.S.A., look in the latest monthly L.S.A., which will be cumulative.
For example: It is the middle of April. Look in the September L.S.A. for the previous year, then you would need the most recent L.S.A. Assume the most recent issue in the library is February.
Other Indexes
Indexes of All Encyclopedias:
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Resources Indexes
See Also
Federal Register
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