Administrative Materials

Updating & Validating Administrative Materials

Updating & Validating the CFR

The official version of the CFR is published annually by the Government Printing Office (GPO) in both print and pdf formats. The e-CFR, LexisNexis CFR and Westlaw Annotated CFR, although not official, are updated daily. Check for amendments, proposed amendments, repeals and other changes published in the Federal Register but not yet codified into the official CFR using the List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA). Check for court or agency rulings affecting a rule or regulation using the Westlaw Annotated CFR and LexisNexis CFR with Shepard’s.

• List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA) (NARA, GPO Access; 1986 to present; full-text, pdf)
• Compilation of Sections Affected (HeinOnline; 1949-2000; full-text, pdf)
• List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA) (KF 70 .A34 C6; 1949 to present)

CFR pamphlets are published annually. Once you have located a rule or regulation in the CFR, you must determine whether it has been amended, repealed or changed in some way. Amendments, changes, etc. are published in the Federal Register in the form of a new final rule or regulation. Also, you will want to determine whether any proposed amendments, changes, etc. have been published in the Federal Register in the form of a proposed rule or regulation. You should also determine whether any court or agency rulings have affected your rule or regulation.

Typical publication and amendment pattern for a rule or regulation:

• An agency promulgates a final rule or regulation and in most instances publishes it in the Federal Register (the entire promulgation process from beginning to final rule or regulation may be found in the Federal Register)
• The final rule or regulation is then codified into the CFR with a source and authority note (the CFR is codified annually on a quarterly schedule)
• At some point, the agency may amend the rule or regulation by promulgating a new amended final rule or regulation. The new, amended final rule or regulation is then published in the Federal Register and eventually codified into the CFR (Note: proposed amendments are also published in the Federal Register)
• Use the List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA) to locate Federal Register cites for any amendments or proposed amendments published in the Federal Register but not yet codified into the CFR (The List of CFR Sections Affected is published monthly)
• Next, use the List of Parts Affected (in the Readers Aids section at the back of the Federal Register) in last issue of the month for each month up to the present not covered by the List of CFR Sections Affected; locate Federal Register cites for amendments or proposed amendments published in the Federal Register but not yet included in the List of CFR Sections Affected (Note: The List of Parts Affected cumulates for each month of the Federal Register so that only one look-up per month is required)

Updating & Validating the CFR: Check for Amendments and Proposed Amendments in the LSA

Check for any amendments or proposed amendments published in the Federal Register but not yet codified into the CFR online by using the List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA) (NARA, GPO Access) and in print by using the List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA) (NARA, KF 70 .A34):

• The most recent LSA paper pamphlet will show changes to regulations or proposed changes to parts published in the Federal Register since publication of the most recent CFR; the inside page will show the date range of changes included in the pamphlet for each CFR title (references are to Federal Register pages).
• In some instances, where publication of a particular CFR title is delayed, and the most recent LSA pamphlet covers only the time period from when that CFR title should have been issued (leaving a gap in time of about 1 year), you must also check the annual LSA pamphlet for the year prior to the most recent LSA pamphlet in order to fill in that gap.
• There are separate listings for final actions and for proposed rules; remember to check both.
• The LSA provides an update to the Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules.
• Use the Table of Federal Register Issue Pages and Dates to find which issue a Federal Register page reference is in since out of the 250+ issues published each year only the date, and not the pages contained within, is shown on the spine or cover.

Updating & Validating the CFR: Check for Amendments and Proposed Amendments in the Federal Register

Check for any amendments or proposed amendments published in the Federal Register but not yet included in the List of CFR Sections Affected using the List of Parts Affected located in the Readers Aids section at the back of each Federal Register issue:

• The last issue of each month of the Federal Register not covered by the LSA contains a List of CFR Parts Affected During that month – the last issue in each month cumulates for that month.
• The current month’s as well as the prior month’s List of CFR Parts Affected is available on the LSA web site.

Updating & Validating the CFR: Shepard’s & KeyCite

Validate your rule or regulation using Shepard’s on LexisNexis and KeyCite on Westlaw. Check for judicial treatment and interpretation in federal and state courts; also locate law review articles, ALR annotations, etc. Unlike with statutes, there is no annotated CFR, but locate a relevant looseleaf or other service that contains interpretations, explanations, analysis, annotations, citators, etc. and functions like an annotated CFR at least for the portion of the CFR of interest to you. See Legal Looseleafs in Print (KF 1 .L43x) and Specialized Legal Research (KF 240 .S63x 1987).

Updating & Validating Agency Decisions

• Shepard’s
• KeyCite
• Other specialized citators usually part of a looseleaf service
• LexisNexis and/or Westlaw as a citator

Citing Administrative & Executive Materials

Rule 14 of The Bluebook (18th ed. 2005) (Reserve, Reference Desk, Reference KF 245 B58) and Rule 19 of the ALWD Citation Manual (2nd ed. 2003) (Reference Desk and Reference KF 245 A45 2003) contain rules for citing to the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulation, Executive Orders and Proclamations, Presidential Papers, Agency Adjudications, Arbitrations and Reports, and other federal administrative and executive publications.

See §§ 2-400 and 3-400 of Introduction to Basic Legal Citation by Peter W. Martin (LII 2006 ed.) for detailed instructions on constructing citations using The Bluebook and the ALWD Citation Manual.

Note: We linked the resources to archive.org in an effort to decrease the number of broken links cited.