The eCFR : New & Improved

 

The Federal Register contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices and is published every weekday, except for federal holidays. Closely related to this is The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), where the general and permanent rules are arranged in a system designed for easier reference use. Because the CFR is only updated and published once a year, the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register (ACFR) authorized the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and the Government Publishing Office (GPO) to establish the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR). The eCFR has a combination of CFR material and amendments that are published daily in the Federal Register. While the eCFR tries to remain accurate, it is not yet recognized as a official legal edition.

Updates & Accuracy

The eCFR relies on the OFR's daily amendment updates. In order to effectively share their information, the eCFR displays a header, like below, stating the regulation's effective date.

Updates depend heavily on documents published in the Federal Register. Those documents contain effective dates for the amendments, and once that date has approached, the eCFR is updated.  In the meantime, the OFR cross references links to the amendments that will soon become effective.

In terms of editorial errors, the eCFR has a corrections page  that cites the CFR title and section affected, the correction made, and the dates of the errors. It's crucial to remain the most accurate and transparent, hence why the eCFR works quickly to fix any errors made. There is also a large list of special rules and procedures that apply to the display of future amendments and effectice dates. 

Getting Started

The eCFR allows readers to:

• browse the Code of Federal Regulations as it existed at any point in time
• compare the regulations as they existed on any two dates
• view a timeline of how the CFR content has changed
• search for specific terms
• subscribe to changes in the regulations

Navigation

The Home Page lists titles and topics in the Table of Contents. Everything is organized in a heriarchy and all you have to do is continue collapsing down to the part and subpart level.

 

Another way to navigate the site is by using the browse feature, specifying in titles and certain agencies.

The third option is a full text search option of eCFR content. From titles to dates, the search field is a good and general point of navigation. 

Reading Content

Below is a screenshot of a single section on eCFR.

The eCFR formats their content in the same matter throughout the entire site. The bold at the top of the section is the title. The sections below the title are all the text of the content, with the gray subpoints offering specific citations when you hover your pointer over them. Finally, the text at the very bottom serves as an overall citation. 

eCFR Changes

The timeline view allows readers to see and compare the changes to eCFR content. It offers an overview of all the changes the specific content you're viewing has gone through. 

By clicking on "view change introduced" or "compare to most recent," any two dates can be compared. Once that is done, the text will have highlighted sections that were changed at the time. An example can be seen below. 

Other Resources

eCFR Reader Aids

The eCFR has a collection of helpful articles and videos to understand the point-in-time system the website uses. 

The Federal Register

The daily publication for Federal agencies and organizations. 

My eCFR

Log in or create an account for the eCFR.

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Government Information Online is produced by the staff at the Oklahoma State University Libraries Government Documents Department, a regional depository for U.S. Government and Oklahoma state government documents. We are located on the 5th floor of the Edmon Low Library. Our department website can be reached at www.info.library.okstate.edu/government-documents. For more information or for research assistance, contact us at 405.744.6546. or email suzanne.reinman@okstate.edu.