6.5: Federal Register

Provide ready access to the official text of Federal laws, Presidential documents, administrative regulations and notices, and descriptions of Federal organizations, programs, and activities

Other Information:

(http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/) - NARA’s Office of the Federal Register (OFR) provides ready access to the official text of Federal laws, Presidential documents, administrative regulations and notices, and descriptions of Federal organizations, programs, and activities. Office of the Federal Register publications include the daily Federal Register, the currently updated Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR), the annual Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Privacy Act Issuances, Public and Private Laws, United States Statutes at Large, the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents, and the U.S. Government Manual. The technological challenge facing the Office of the Federal Register is to replace the aging print-centric Federal Register publication system with a modern Web 2.0 legal information platform. Our leadership challenge is to make the best use of that technology to serve the changing needs of the public and to do our work more efficiently. Open Government at the Federal Register - The idea of open government is the very reason for the Office of the Federal Register's existence. The Federal Register Act of 1935 was the nation’s first open government law, the forerunner of the Administrative Procedure Act, Government in the Sunshine Act, and the Freedom of Information Act. The Office of the Federal Register was established to provide public notice and due process of law by ensuring that legal issuances could no longer be adopted in secret and arbitrarily enforced against the public. In 1993, the Congress authorized the Government Printing Office (GPO) to place the Federal Register online. The Office of the Federal Register and Government Printing Office partnership expanded the “GPO Access” system to include all major Federal Register publications, and broke new ground with the creation of e-CFR, but the platform’s technology is too outdated to fully exploit the potential of the Web. A new generation of Office of Federal Register open government efforts began in 2006 with the initial planning and development of GPO’s Federal Digital System, or “FDsys.” The underpinnings of FDsys include XML-structured data in a modern content management system, backed by powerful search technology. The Office of the Federal Register and the Government Printing Office plan to harness FDsys to create an integrated web-based legal information system, with tools to personalize the user experience and build communities of interest. FDsys users will be able to navigate easily between the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Code, and Presidential documents. The coming transformation will make Federal Register publications more broadly accessible, printable on demand, and easily re-purposed in new ways for customers and staff. Federal Register 2.0 - The Office of the Federal Register's modernization plans, sometimes referred to as “Federal Register 2.0,” greatly accelerated as the President’s Open Government Directive began to take form in early 2009. Although much remains to be done, the Office of the Federal Register has already taken several key steps to democratize regulatory data. We launched FederalRegister.gov, which for the first time extended the public inspection of filed documents, including emergency filings, to a global audience outside of Washington, DC. In 2009, FDsys was released as a public beta site and we established the new Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents, which was specifically designed for FDsys to replace the old print-based Weekly Compilation. We began re-posting all of our publications with digital signatures to authenticate the material as official, accurate, and complete. We are also in the initial stages of reinventing the daily Federal Register product as a web-based publication, built on open source code, with special features to strengthen citizen engagement and more fully inform readers about the documents of our democracy. With support from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, OFR and GPO established a new policy framework for open access to regulatory data. We invested in complex XML conversion projects and built bulk repositories for Federal Register and CFR datasets, which are now posted on Data.gov and FDsys.gov. We reduced data acquisition costs from tens of thousands of dollars to zero, enabling new developers to build innovative web and mobile device applications around regulatory data. The bulk data effort is ongoing as new material is made ready for distribution. OFR will pursue XML conversion of older Federal Register and CFR data in print code format, and develop a digitization strategy for capturing pre-electronic data for the Statutes at Large, Federal Register, CFR, and other publications. The Public Papers of the Presidents will be the next publication offered in down-loadable XML format. In addition, the OFR is converting the U.S. Government Manual into a currently updated web publication, with XML export for bulk data and on-demand printing. The OFR is also working on a regulatory data harmonization project with OMB, GSA (reginfo.gov), and eRulemaking (regulations.gov) to draw together regulatory documents, agency dockets, and regulatory agenda material throughout the rulemaking life-cycle. This will benefit rulemaking agencies and enlighten regulated communities. Commitment to Collaboration - Our commitment to open government is also about openness to new ideas and partnerships. We are actively exchanging ideas with developers in non-government sectors. These new collaborative relationships include Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute, Princeton University’s Center for Innovative Technology Policy, the Federal Depository Libraries and associated academic centers, the award-winning Govpulse.us team in northern California, and the consortium of organizations and individuals involved in the Law.gov project. We will also continue to cooperate with the Law Library of Congress to formulate effective digitization strategies and to integrate ideas for innovation into the Federal legal information space.

Stakeholder(s):

• Office of the Federal Register (OFR)


• GPO


• White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)


• GSA: reginfo.gov


• Law Library of Congress


• Govpulse.us Team


• Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute


• Princeton University’s Center for Innovative Technology Policy


• Federal Depository Libraries

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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