US Federal Law & Regulation Search

Search US federal laws, regulations, and legal documents from official government sources — all in one Actor. This federal regulation search tool provides instant access to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR lookup), Federal Register search results, and GovInfo legal collections through a single, unified API.

Whether you need to look up specific CFR titles, search Federal Register documents for proposed rules and final regulations, or browse GovInfo bulk legal collections, this Actor handles it all with parallel queries and structured output.

Data Sources

This Actor queries 4 official US federal legal databases through the SIP Public Data Gateway:

Source	Product ID	Coverage	Data Type
eCFR	us_ecfr_titles	All 50 CFR titles	Code of Federal Regulations — current regulatory text organized by title, chapter, and part
Federal Register	us_federalregister_documents_search	Daily publications	Proposed rules, final rules, notices, presidential documents, and executive orders
GovInfo	us_govinfo_bulk_collections	Comprehensive legal collections	Congressional bills, statutes, CFR annual editions, Federal Register volumes, and more

Features

• Multi-source search — Query all 3 federal legal databases with a single keyword
• CFR lookup — Search the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations by topic, keyword, or citation
• Federal Register search — Find proposed rules, final rules, notices, and presidential documents
• GovInfo collections — Access bulk legal data from the Government Publishing Office
• Fast — HTTP-only, no browser overhead. Results in seconds via parallel requests
• Flexible — Search all sources or pick specific ones
• Structured output — Consistent metadata fields across all sources with source attribution

Output Fields

Each record in the dataset includes the original fields from the source API plus unified preview fields and metadata added by the Actor:

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Normalized primary label for preview tables
type	string	Normalized record type
status	string	Normalized status where available
country	string	Country or jurisdiction
authority	string	Upstream authority or platform
source_url	string	Link to the original document
_source	string	Which database this record came from (eCFR, Federal Register, or GovInfo)
_product_id	string	SIP product identifier used for the query
_search_term	string	The keyword used in the search
_collected_at	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of when the data was collected

Note: Available fields vary by source. eCFR records include regulation title metadata, Federal Register records include document details, GovInfo records include collection/package metadata, and CourtListener records include court opinion fields.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchTerms	array	preferred	Search terms (e.g. "environmental protection", "data privacy", "workplace safety", "clean air act")
includeRegulations	boolean	true	Include eCFR regulation search
includeRulemaking	boolean	true	Include Federal Register documents and rules
includeGovInfo	boolean	true	Include GovInfo legal collections
includeOpinions	boolean	true	Include federal court opinions via CourtListener
maxResultsPerSource	integer	50	Max results per source (up to 200)

Examples

Example 1: Search all sources for environmental regulations

{
  "searchTerms": ["environmental protection"],
  "maxResultsPerSource": 100
}

This searches all four databases for regulations, rules, legal documents, and opinions related to environmental protection. Returns up to 100 results from each source.

Example 2: Federal Register only — find recent rulemaking

{
  "searchTerms": ["artificial intelligence"],
  "includeRegulations": false,
  "includeRulemaking": true,
  "includeGovInfo": false,
  "includeOpinions": false,
  "maxResultsPerSource": 50
}

Searches only the Federal Register for proposed rules, final rules, and notices mentioning artificial intelligence. Useful for tracking new regulatory activity on a specific topic.

Example 3: CFR lookup for a specific regulation area

{
  "searchTerms": ["clean water act"],
  "includeRegulations": true,
  "includeRulemaking": false,
  "includeGovInfo": true,
  "includeOpinions": false,
  "maxResultsPerSource": 200
}

Searches the eCFR and GovInfo for all regulatory text and legal documents related to the Clean Water Act. Combines current regulatory text with historical legislative documents.

Use Cases

Lawyers & Legal Researchers

Search across multiple federal legal databases simultaneously instead of visiting each site individually. Find relevant CFR sections, pending rulemakings, and supporting legislative history in one query. Ideal for regulatory research, compliance opinions, and litigation support.

Compliance Officers

Monitor regulatory changes in your industry by searching the Federal Register for new proposed rules and final rules. Track how regulations evolve from proposal to final rule across the eCFR and Federal Register. Set up recurring searches to stay ahead of regulatory changes affecting your organization.

Academic Researchers & Policy Analysts

Analyze the federal regulatory landscape on any topic. Quantify regulatory activity by counting Federal Register documents, map the CFR titles that govern a specific area, and access bulk legal collections from GovInfo for large-scale text analysis and policy research.

Journalists & Investigators

Quickly find federal regulations and rulemaking activity on any topic. Search for executive orders, presidential documents, and agency notices in the Federal Register. Cross-reference with eCFR to see the current state of regulations.

Government Affairs & Lobbyists

Track regulatory activity relevant to your clients or industry. Monitor proposed rules in the Federal Register before they become final. Identify which CFR titles and parts are being amended and understand the regulatory trajectory on key issues.

Cost Estimate

This Actor uses the SIP Public Data Gateway. Cost scales with the number of enabled legal source groups.

Performance

Scenario	Sources	Speed
Single source	1	~1-3 seconds
All sources	4	~2-5 seconds (parallel)

All enabled sources are queried in parallel using asyncio.gather, so searching all sources takes roughly the same time as searching the slowest individual source.

Legal

This Actor queries publicly available US federal legal data from official government open data portals. The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, and GovInfo are all published by the US Government Publishing Office and are in the public domain. No login or authentication to government systems is required — data is accessed through the SIP Public Data Gateway's official public APIs.

Related Actors

• US Government Contracts Search — Search federal and state/local procurement opportunities and contract awards
• US Business Entity Search — Search business registrations across 10+ US states
• US Healthcare Provider & Drug Search — Search NPI providers, FDA recalls, clinical trials, and more

Use as MCP Tool (AI Agent Integration)

This Actor works as an MCP tool — AI agents (Claude, GPT, Cursor) can discover and run it automatically.

Quick setup (Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code)

Add to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then ask your AI: "Search for environmental regulation in US federal law databases"

Direct API call

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("lentic_clockss/us-federal-law-search").call(
    run_input={"searchTerms": ["environmental regulation"], "maxResultsPerSource": 50}
)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Other Data API Actors

• EU Legal & Procurement Data API
• France Government Data API

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Also Available

• Postman Collection: Fork and test in Postman — pre-built requests with example responses
• GitHub: Collection source files — import JSON into any API client
• Direct API: https://opendata.best/api/v1/data — use with any HTTP client and your API key