Federal Government Publication Procedures
Despite appearances to the contrary, publication of legal documents–such as Public Law, Acts of Congress, Statutes, and Regulations–by the Federal Government follows a logical and straightforward procedure. On this page, you will find a brief synopsis of the process the Federal Government follows when publishing legislation and regulations. A basic understanding of the Publication Procedures will enable you to navigate through this site with greater ease and confidence, armed with the knowledge of what you are looking and where you will find it.
The Congressional Level:
Acts of Congress, Public Law, Statutes, and the United States Code
As you know, Congress is the legislative body of the Federal Government. To that end, Congress is responsible for passing laws that reflect policy decisions and the will of those represented.
Initially, whenever Congress creates and passes legislation, this legislation is deemed to be an Act of Congress. All Acts of Congress are also referred to as Public Law and given two sets of numbers, indicative of which Congress passed the Bill and the number of the Bill itself. Public Laws are often referred to by other names, which often reflect the content of the legislation or the name or names of those who proposed them. For example, the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 is Public Law 102-585, and one can refer to it in either manner.
All Acts of Congress, or Public Law, is assembled and published as part of an annual volume of The United States Statutes at Large. While The Statutes at Large is an important publication, it is not easily searchable, given that all content is arranged chronologically. As a result, Acts of Congress addressing similar or identical topics can be scattered throughout several different volumes of The Statutes at Large. Even more confounding, Acts of Congress typically address more than one topical area. For example, the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 created the 340B Pricing Program, which applies to entities not at all related to Veterans Affairs.
The Office of Law Revision Counsel (LRC), an Office of the United States House of Representatives, is responsible for publishing the United States Code. The United States Code is a publication that is arranged by topic. Currently, 50 Titles comprise the Code, reflective of 50 different topical areas of legislation.
First, it is the LRC's duty to determine which statutes should be codified. Only statutes that are "general or permanent" in nature are codified. As such, statutes pertaining to a limited number of individuals or operating for a limited duration of time, such as most appropriations or budgets laws, are not published in the United States Code.
Second, the LRC must determine which existing laws are affected by a new statute and which existing laws have expired on their own terms.
Finally, the LRC must then publish the appropriate provisions of all statutes at the appropriate sections of the Code. As a result, a single-named statute (much like the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992) may not appear in one place in the Code. Complex legislation often bundles a series of provisions together as a means of addressing a social problem. For example, a bill providing relief for family farms might affect Title 7 (Agriculture), Title 26 (Tax), and Title 43 (Public Lands). Codification of such a bill would entail placing provisions within all three of those sections of the Code.
As stated above, the Code is divided into 50 sections. In terms of Federal Programs and Statutory Pricing, you will be mostly dealing with the following Titles:
- Title 10–Armed Forces
- Title 38–Veterans Affairs
- Title 42–The Public Health
Always bear in mind, however, that complex legislation will affect more than one section of the Code. Following with the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 example, this legislation affected both Title 38 and 42.
The Code is referred to first by topical area and then section, thus: 42 U.S.C. 401.
On the PCX, you will have access to both Acts of Congress and the United States Code. These carry with them the force and effect of law.
The Federal Agency Level:
Federal Register Notices and the Code of Federal Regulations
Federal Agencies are often created or empowered by Acts of Congress to carry out specific functions. It is important to note that Federal Agencies are part of the Executive Branch of the Government, which is typically responsible for enforcing the law. However, Federal Agencies are able to issues rules and regulations and adjudicate issues arising under their limited jurisdictions. In this manner, Federal Agencies act as both law-makers and as adjudicators, obfuscating the simplistic view of a tri-partite government of separated powers.
Publication at the Agency level follows much the same process as at the Congressional level. By virtue of the Administrative Procedure Act, arguably the most important piece of legislation in the world of administrative law, Agencies are required to follow certain procedures for creating, issuing, and publishing their Regulations.
First, an Agency will typically publish a Proposed Rule in the Federal Register and allow interested parties the requisite amount of time to comment upon it. The Rule will go through various iterations, until it ultimately becomes a Final Rule. All Final Rules are issued in the Federal Register.
Much like The Statutes at Large, the Federal Register is a chronological publication. Therefore, one edition of the Register might contain Agency rules covering any one of the fifty different Federal topic areas. As such, while the Register is an important publication for providing notice of rule-making to interested parties, it is not the most easily searchable database.
Similarly, general or permanent rules or regulations are then organized topically and published annually in the Code of Federal Regulations. The topical indexing of the Code of Federal Regulations mirrors that of the United States Code; in other words, Title 42 refers to the Public Health in both the Code of Federal Regulations and the United States Code.
As stated above, Federal Regulations carry with them the force and effect of law, despite the fact that an Executive Agency issued them and not Congress.
On the PCX, you will find both Federal Register Notices and regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations. You will find Federal Register Notices for the current year only; after annual publication of the Code of Federal Regulations, all final rules are incorporated directly into the Code.