Legal Authority & Privacy Policy

Legal Authority

The FederalRegister.gov web site and the Electronic Public Inspection Desk service are authorized by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).  This web site is maintained by the OFR and the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) as an e-Government service of the NARA/GPO partnership.  This site hosts the Electronic Public Inspection Desk, which provides full-text, global access to the pre-publication versions of documents scheduled to appear in the Federal Register on GPOaccess.gov.  It also functions as a portal to the official Federal Register publications on GPOaccess.gov, and to Federal Register information services on Archives.gov. 

The Office of the Federal Register is required to file documents for public inspection at least one Federal government business day before publication in the Federal Register in accordance with 44 U.S.C. 1507 and 1 CFR part 17.  After documents are received, indexed, edited, and reviewed for compliance with legal requirements, the OFR makes a public inspection version of the document available at the Federal Register office, 800 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, D.C.  The actual date and time of filing is specified on the filed document, and reflects the point at which the document is available to the public at the Federal Register office in Washington D.C., rather than the time of Internet posting.

A full-text version of the filed document is posted to the FederalRegister.gov web site shortly after the document is publicly available at the Federal Register office.  The time of posting to the web site will vary depending upon server usage and other factors, but the controlling point of public release is indicated on the filed document by a time/date stamp, regardless of Internet availability.  The legally controlling version of a public inspection document is the official record filed at the Federal Register office in Washington D.C. because of the possibility that artifacts or textual variations may be introduced through electronic processing and the file conversions required for Internet posting.  Similarly, the legally controlling version of a document printed in the Federal Register and posted in the online edition on GPO Access is the official record filed at the Federal Register office.  See 44 U.S.C. 1507(3).

Privacy Policy

NARA and GPO collect no personal information about visitors to this web site. We follow OMB recommendations and best practices for protecting Internet privacy.  We do not enable cookies to monitor usage or to gather users’ personal information.
The only information collected is the visitor's domain and Internet Protocol address, the type of browser and operating system used to access the site, the files visited and the time spent in each file, and the time and date of the visit.   We use this information for statistical purposes, and to improve public access to this service. 

Unauthorized Use and Security

This web site is an official United States Government System. It is intended for use by the public to view and retrieve Federal Register public inspection files and related information.  For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this Government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement officials. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on this server are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.