The Responsibilities and authority of the administrative committee of the Federal Register

The administrative committee of the Federal Register was established in 1935 under the Federal Register Act (FRA) (44 U.S.C. Chapter 15).  It is a permanent executive/legislative branch authority charged with overseeing the functions of the Federal Register Publications system.  The main mission of this agency is to ensure the legislative mandates of the Federal Public Information statutes, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Freedom of Information Act are carried out with a uniform system.  This involves the filing system and publishing regulatory material and Presidential documents to ensure the public has ready access to regulatory and organizational material information of the Federal Government.

     The Administrative Committee of the Federal Register consists of the Archivist of the United States or Acting Archivist who will be the chairman, an officer of the Department of Justice.  The individual in this position is designated by the Attorney General and the Public Printer or Acting Public Printer.  The Director of the Federal Register shall act as the secretary of the committee.

     The responsibilities of this committee involve prescribing regulations with the approval of the President for carrying out this chapter.  Among other responsibilities regulations created by this commission shall provide for five specific conditions. These conditions are taken directly from this commission’s web site

     The first aspect of this commission’s regulations involves “the manner of certification of copies required to be certified under section 1503 of this title, which certification may be permitted to be based upon confirmed communications from outside the District of Columbia”

     The second item required to be a part of regulations of this commission is “the documents which shall be authorized under section 1505(b) of this title to be published in the federal register.”

     Another condition to be met by the regulations of this commission is: “the manner and form in which the Federal Register shall be printed, reprinted, and complied, indexed, bound and distributed.” 

     The last two conditions to be met by regulations of this commission are:  “the number of copies of the Federal Register, which shall be printed, reprinted, and compiled, the number which shall be distributed without charge to Members of Congress, officers and employees, of the United States, or Federal agency, for official use, and the number which shall be available for distribution to the public” and “the prices to be charged for individual copies of, and subscriptions to, the Federal Register and reprints and bound volumes of it.”

     The Administrative Committee of the Federal Register oversees the functions of the Federal Register Publications System.  Examples of documents in the Federal Register Publication system involve such things as public laws, government grants, federal agency regulations, proposed rules and public notices, executive orders, proclamations and other Presidential documents. 

     Reading the Federal Register may be vital to you and your customers in the following ways.

     If you need to know about the day-to-day operations of the Federal Government

     If your business is regulated by a federal agency

     If you are an attorney practicing before a regulatory agency

     If your organization attends public hearings or meetings or applies for grants

     If you are concerned with the Government actions that affect the environment, health care,  financial services, exports, education, or other major public policy issues.

As you can see the extent of the Federal Register is enormous and the information available affects every individual in the country.  This is a great resource for which all citizens need to be aware of along with the information available.  Many individuals may not know this but the Federal Register is the daily newspaper of the Federal Government).  Like any newspaper there can be information which may affect us as individuals as with the examples above.  There is an option to sign up for email updates with various agencies and departments of the government.  Those to which we may have a defined interest the option is there to keep informed.  An informed citizen is one that can make good decisions.  Granted there are many agencies and departments of the government.  Keeping abreast of the actions of various agencies and departments is important today more than ever.  I personally have subscribed to some of the email update options available.