I’m rusty on this issue so be cautious. Most is general info and won’t harm you if I am wrong.
Hat tip to blue aardvark for suggesting that I write a diary about the Federal Register (hereinafter, “FR”) which is a 5 day a week (except holidays) publication that informs us of all the Public Notices, Proposed Rules, Final Rules of Agencies and Presidential Documents (2 today which were signed yesterday). Anything new is captured from the prior day or Friday (skipping the weekend). Presidential Documents are at the end of the Agencies list.
When I was very active in an environmental law practice, I looked at it every day. The Agencies are grouped in alpha order. I admit to sucking at advanced searches so I just scroll through the whole thing and look at the topics/agency. For instance, today’s FR Current Issues has 99 total documents: 87 Notices, 2 Presidential Documents, 2 Proposed Rules and 11 Final Rules.
Of special note for me was the link to the Public Inspection Documents. These are documents that are on file at the FR but not yet published. There are Regular Filing documents which will be published the next day. Special Filing documents will be filed at some future date. Regarding the Special Filing Documents the following language can be found today:
Editorial Note: APHIS [Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] requested the withdrawal of this document after it was on public inspection. It will remain on public inspection until the close of business on January 24. A copy of the withdrawal request is available at the Office of the Federal Register.
This same note applies to practically all of the the Special Filing Docs. This note is not necessarily nefarious. All of those proposed rules and final rules may fall under the “Midnight Regulations” umbrella. Those are the ones that were proposed within the 60 day period prior to the Inauguration of the next President. I didn’t look through each of them, but it is worth watching to see if they are outside the 60 day period and/or disappear. It would require a lot of research to go back 60 days from January 20, 2017 to find which final rules are vulnerable.
To be fair, I looked back at Obama’s first administration and he put a freeze on any proposed and final regs that fell within that time frame. George W. Bush was a busy bee in his lame duck session.
So, the not really tedious exercise of reviewing the daily FR proceeds anon. First, open up the FR website. Choose “Current Issues.” Scroll through the Agencies then narrow your topic of research by Agency and topic(s). The Agency links are in alphabetical order and some have sub-departments like the Interior Department. Click the hyperlinks for the documents which will be identified as Notice, Proposed Rule, Final Rule, Presidential Documents are separate.
The Notice documents are informational public notices about general or specific intentions of an agency. Examples of notices would be meeting announcements, publication of a study or an intent to grant a license under current law. Each notice that may require comment/objection provides a specific time period during which to comment if necessary. It can be anywhere from 15 to 30 to 60 days and subject to extension.
Proposed Regulations are draft rules that are published in full and provide a specific comment period, also subject to extension and re-proposed after the first comment period.
Final Rules occur after the final comment period and should reflect an adequate period of review of the comments prior to publication. One can know how many comments were submitted. Final Rules are subject to legal challenge.
Many of these documents are incredibly long and detailed. Getting used to the language takes time. There is, however, a handy summary and background at the beginning. Enviro lawyers do not fall into the trap of depending on the summary — they read the whole danged thing. If it is a final rule, the effective date is provided after the summary.
Find a pet issue or issues and follow it for a few months or more (be aware of the close of the comment period) through the process.
Don’t forget to check out the Public Information Documents which are the ones which will be published the next day or some future indeterminate date.
I find once you get into the FR, it is like looking for a definition in the Oxford English Dictionary and the next thing you know over an hour has gone by because you are discovering other interesting definitions. You really can discipline yourself by setting off a specific amount of time every day to research your topic or find new ones.
Depending how you pull up the document, for purposes of citation, normally the Volume, Number and Date of the document you are looking at is at the center of the page. The page number is at the upper right. I just used another entry point and the Volume, Number and Date are on the upper right and the Page Number is on the upper left.
A particular document may start anywhere on the page. For instance, the Department of Interior: Fish and Wildlife Notice of a Draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan is found at Vol. 82, No. 14, January 24, 2017, Pg. 8203-05. It starts farther down in the right hand column. Shite happens because folks are not informed because the media doesn’t inform you until it is too late. Pick a few non-profit legal groups which represent your area of interest and follow what their hot topics are. Also, read Lawyers, Guns & Money for excellent political issues of importance. And don’t forget ProPublica, perhaps the best independent investigative journalists, especially regarding environmental issues.
I’m sure I left something out or will have provided alternate facts so please feel free to correct me in the comments. This is just the Nancy Drew Girl Detective precis. Period.
I need more refresher time, but I’d like to write a piece on The Administrative Procedures Act for Dummies. Many things the man from Taco Tower claims he can do with the stroke of the pen actually do require following established law.