"The Federal Register provides a uniform system for making available to the public, regulations and legal notices issued by Federal agencies.  These include Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal Agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest." (Superintendent of Documents, 66Federal Register109 (6 June 2001)pp.II.)

Legislation is published first as a Slip Law. This is a printing, in pamphlet form, of a law a enacted by congress and signed by the President.  Marginal notes and citations are added, and it is published by the Office of the Federal Register. (Moorehead, Joe and Fetzer, Mary. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources,  4th ed. Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1992, pp. 137)

The United States Statues at Large, a chronological arrangement of the slip laws in bound sessional volumes, is published as the Statutes at Large.  These volumes include chronological or numerical order in  separate series public laws, private laws, joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions, and some presidential materials. The Statues at Large has a subject index and individual (name) index for access to private laws.  The Statutes constitute legal evidence of the laws contained in them, acceptable as proof of those laws in the courts. (Moorehead, Joe and Fetzer, Mary. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources, 4th ed. Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc. 1992, pp. 137)

The United States Code (U.S.C.) consists of a consolidation and codification of the general and permanent laws.  Arranged under title, the United States Code provides subject access, collates the initial law with subsequent amendments, and excludes statutory provisions that over time have been repealed or superseded.  Procedures for implementing the law are contained in the CFR. (Moorehead, Joe and Fetzer, Mary. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources, 4th ed. Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc. 1992, pp. 137,139)

The Code of Federal Regulations, the rulemaking process is a set of formal procedures through which a statute, as codified in the U.S.C., adopted by the Congress and signed by the president is translated into specific written requirements to be carried out and enforced by executive branch and independent agencies. (Moorehead, Joe and Fetzer, Mary. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources, 4th ed. Colorado: Libraries Unlivited, Inc. 1992, pp.206)

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E.H. Little Library
URL:http://www.davidson.edu/administrative/library/govdoc/government_information.asp
Last Modified: 10/01/2009