Assessment Questions
Final and proposed regulations are first published in the Federal Register. The Federal Register is published Monday through Friday excluding holidays and is the place for the first publication of proposed and final regulations. It makes sense because both need to be in front of the public as soon as possible. The publication in the Federal Register begins the notice and comment period which allows the public to comment on the proposed regulations. The publication of the final regulation in the Federal Register announces that the regulations is now enforce. The final regulation will be published in the Code of Regulations which is arranged by topic. You will find published with the final regulation in the Federal Register the Preamble which is a discussion by the agency of the rule making process for that regulation.. You will not find this discussion in the Code of Federal Regulation. The Preamble discussion is very useful in understanding the thought process of the agency.
The Federal Register is a print publication which you can find on the Federal Register Website. You will see the print edition at the top of the page. https://www.federalregister.gov/
However, the website does not provide all issues of the Federal Register. So you will not to use other sources. A very good source is Hein Online which has all the print editions – Volume 1 (1936).
Forum Discussions
USAFacts
I am glad that y’all found it interesting diving into USA Facts. https://usafacts.org/ They have dona an amazing job of pulling together government statistics. This is a link to their sources and discussion of methodology – https://usafacts.org/sources
Here are a couple of links to agency websites.
Census – https://www.census.gov/
Bureau of Labor Statistics – https://www.bls.gov/
IRS – https://www.irs.gov/statistics
The WSJ used the IRS data in this article. You can find the article in Module 5 in TWEN “You Filed Returns. The IRS Compiled the Data. Here’s How the New Tax Law Is Working
Agency Decisions
Again, I am glad that you found interesting this brief look at agency decisions. You can also find some agency decisions in other places, but seeing how the agency organizes them is very useful. The next time an agency decision is mentioned, take the opportunity to go to the agency website to find and read the decision and also to learn more about the quasi-judicial process of that agency. Remember, the agency decisions are subject to judicial review and interpretation. Also, take Ad Law or a course in an area which deals with regulations. For example, environmental law.
