What Is the CFR?
The Code of Federal Regulations, or CFR, is comprised of the general rules and regulations that govern federal government agencies and executive departments. These rules and regulations are codified annually by the Federal Register, an agency of the National Archives and Records Administration, and made permanent as published on a quarterly basis. The CFR is a 20th century creation, a result of decades of increased regulatory activity that affected not only federal, state and local government, but also the nation's businesses and the public at large.
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Origin
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In the 1930s, federal regulations emerged as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal economic regulatory programs. These wide-ranging programs fell under the jurisdiction of many existing economic federal agencies as well as the newly created commercial and financial agencies (such as the Federal Reserve Board). To implement these diversified New Deal programs, each agency created "administrative rules" that came to be known as federal regulations.
Development
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A second regulatory burst emerged as a result of the late 1960s' social regulatory programs. These regulations addressed consumer protection, environmental quality, safety in the workplace and energy supply. In the 1970s, another rise in federal regulatory agencies emerged and established regulations addressing transportation safety, fair debt practices, environmental protection, occupational health and safety, energy supply, and agriculture production.
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Purpose
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The U.S. Congress does not have the time or energy to create legislation to govern the detailed activities of more than 1,300 existing federal agencies. Instead, Congress allows the agencies some autonomy. Congress communicates public policy intentions to the agencies in the form of noncodified statutes, permits these agencies to interpret that direction on their own, then authorizes them to enforce that interpretation within their jurisdiction. This enforcement is accomplished through the federal regulations each agency creates.
Nomenclature
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The CFR is categorized by 50 distinct volumes called "titles" that each represents a broad federally regulated subject area. They are then divided into chapters, which are assigned to the federal agencies associated with that particular subject area. The chapters are then separated into parts and the parts into sections. When adopted and published in the Federal Register, each federal regulation will include the appropriate title number, which precedes the CFR designation, followed by the chapter, part and section numbers.
Features
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The CFR represents the complete official text of each regulation as it is created and made permanent by the instituting agency. Every CFR Title is updated annually in the 200 volumes that comprise them. But it is not all done at the same time. Titles are updated and printed on a quarterly basis. The entire CFR is available in electronic form for free, in paper form at the Federal Depository Library, and by purchase of individual copies or full-set subscriptions.
Analysis and Review
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As a political countermeasure to the growth and diversity of federal agency regulations, presidential administrations started conducting their own review and analysis. Under President Jimmy Carter, there was considerable backlash regarding presidential review from agency heads, so the Regulatory Analysis Review Group (RARG) was created to evaluate the economic value of 10 selected federal regulations annually. Under President Ronald Reagan, this duty was transferred to the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB). Today, the OMB continues to conduct regulatory analysis and review guided by the idea of "more benefits, less burden."
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