US Federal Register Scraper

Scrape the US Federal Register — the official daily journal of US federal regulatory documents (rules, proposed rules, notices, executive orders, presidential documents). Search by term, filter by agency / date / type, fetch by document number. Pulls full bibliographic info, CFR cross-references, comment URLs, and optionally the full body text. HTTP-only via the public federalregister.gov/api/v1 API. No auth, no proxy.

What this actor does

• Two modes: search (full-text + filters) and byDocumentNumbers (lookup specific docs)
• Filters: publication date range, agency, document type (RULE / PRORULE / NOTICE / PRESDOCU), presidential document subtype
• Sorts: newest, oldest, relevance
• Optional full text — fetch and strip the body HTML to plain text
• Empty fields are omitted — no nulls in output

Output per document

• documentNumber, title, abstract, excerpts (search-mode highlight)
• type (Rule/Proposed Rule/Notice/Presidential Document), typeCode (RULE/PRORULE/NOTICE/PRESDOCU)
• publicationDate, effectiveDate, commentsCloseOn, signingDate
• citation (e.g. 89 FR 12345)
• startPage, endPage
• agencies[] — readable agency names
• cfrReferences[] — [{title, part}] references into the Code of Federal Regulations
• docketIds[] — Regulations.gov docket IDs
• executiveOrderNumber (when applicable)
• presidentialDocumentNumber (when applicable)
• action, dates, explanation — preamble fields (detail mode)
• htmlUrl, pdfUrl, publicInspectionPdfUrl, fullTextXmlUrl, bodyHtmlUrl, commentUrl
• bodyText — when fetchFullText=true
• recordType: "document", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byDocumentNumbers
searchTerm	string	climate	Free-text query (mode=search)
documentNumbers	array	–	Federal Register document numbers (mode=byDocumentNumbers)
documentTypes	array	[]	RULE/PRORULE/NOTICE/PRESDOCU
agencies	array	[]	Agency slugs (e.g. environmental-protection-agency)
publicationDateGte	string	–	YYYY-MM-DD lower bound
publicationDateLte	string	–	YYYY-MM-DD upper bound
presidentialDocumentTypes	array	[]	executive_order/proclamation/etc.
sortBy	string	newest	newest/oldest/relevance
fetchFullText	bool	false	Fetch + strip body HTML
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap (1–5000)

Example: all final rules from EPA in 2024

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchTerm": "",
  "agencies": ["environmental-protection-agency"],
  "documentTypes": ["RULE"],
  "publicationDateGte": "2024-01-01",
  "publicationDateLte": "2024-12-31",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: all executive orders since 2024

{
  "mode": "search",
  "documentTypes": ["PRESDOCU"],
  "presidentialDocumentTypes": ["executive_order"],
  "publicationDateGte": "2024-01-01",
  "sortBy": "newest"
}

Example: lookup specific documents

{
  "mode": "byDocumentNumbers",
  "documentNumbers": ["2024-08901", "2024-12345"]
}

Example: search "climate" with body text included

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchTerm": "climate disclosure",
  "fetchFullText": true,
  "maxItems": 25
}

Use cases

• Regulatory monitoring — track every new rule from agencies you care about
• Compliance — surface comment-period deadlines and effective dates
• Policy analysis — bulk-export rules / EOs by topic for analysis
• Legal research — find every rule that cites a specific CFR title and part
• Lobbying / GR — aggregate all proposed rules in your industry vertical
• Journalism — daily digest of federal regulatory output

FAQ

Do I need a federalregister.gov account? No. The Federal Register API is fully public and requires no authentication.

Is there a rate limit? The API is generous; the actor inserts small delays to stay polite (~3 req/s).

What's the difference between RULE and PRORULE? RULE = final rule (already in effect or about to be). PRORULE = proposed rule (open for public comment).

What's a "presidential document"? Executive Orders, Proclamations, Memoranda, Notices, and other presidential issuances. Filter further with presidentialDocumentTypes.

How do I find an agency slug? Browse federalregister.gov/agencies. The slug is the URL segment (e.g. environmental-protection-agency).

What's cfrReferences? Pointers from this document into the Code of Federal Regulations. Each reference has a title (e.g. 40 for Environment) and a part (e.g. 52).

Why does bodyText cost extra? It requires a second HTTP request per document to fetch the body HTML, then strips it to plain text. For 100 documents that's 100 extra requests. Default is off; opt in via fetchFullText: true.

How fresh is the data? Same-day. The Federal Register is published every federal business day at 8:45 AM ET; the API reflects new documents within minutes.

Can I search the body of documents? Yes — the searchTerm parameter searches title, abstract, AND full body text by default.