📜 Regulations.gov Scraper

Whether you're a lobbyist tracking regulatory changes, a compliance officer monitoring agency rules, or a researcher analyzing public comments, this tool makes it easy to collect structured data from the federal government's regulatory portal.

The Regulations.gov Scraper collects federal regulatory documents, public comments, and dockets. Search by keyword, filter by agency, document type, and date range. Get titles, agencies, posting dates, comment periods, docket IDs, and direct links for rules, proposed rules, notices, and supporting materials.

✨ What Does It Do

• 📄 Regulatory documents - collect rules, proposed rules, notices, and supporting materials with full metadata
• 💬 Public comments - gather public comments submitted on proposed regulations
• 📁 Dockets - retrieve docket records that group related documents and comments
• 🏛️ Agency filtering - filter by any federal agency (EPA, FDA, FCC, DOT, HHS, and more)
• 🔍 Keyword search - find documents matching specific terms like "climate change" or "net neutrality"
• 📅 Date range filtering - narrow results to documents posted within a specific date window
• 📋 Docket lookup - retrieve all documents and comments for a specific docket ID

🔧 Input

• Search Term - full text search query (e.g., 'climate change', 'net neutrality')
• Document Type - choose between Documents, Comments, or Dockets
• Max Items - how many records to collect (free users get 10, paid users up to 1,000,000)
• API Key - your free api.data.gov key (DEMO_KEY included for testing)
• Agency ID - filter by agency acronym (e.g., EPA, FDA, FCC)
• Filter by Document Subtype - narrow documents by Rule, Proposed Rule, Notice, etc.
• Posted Date Start/End - filter by posting date range (YYYY-MM-DD)
• Docket ID - look up a specific docket (overrides keyword search)

{
    "searchTerm": "climate change",
    "documentType": "documents",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "apiKey": "DEMO_KEY",
    "agencyId": "EPA"
}

📊 Output

Each record includes different fields depending on the document type. Download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Documents

Field	Description
documentId	Unique document identifier
title	Document title
agencyId	Issuing agency acronym
documentType	Type (Rule, Proposed Rule, Notice, etc.)
postedDate	Date posted on Regulations.gov
modifyDate	Last modification date
docketId	Parent docket identifier
objectId	Internal object identifier
commentStartDate	When public comment period opens
commentEndDate	When public comment period closes
openForComment	Whether comments are currently accepted
withdrawn	Whether document has been withdrawn
url	Direct link to the document on Regulations.gov
scrapedAt	Timestamp when data was collected

{
    "documentId": null,
    "title": "EPA - Climate Change Impacts Midwest",
    "agencyId": "PHMSA",
    "documentType": "Supporting & Related Material",
    "postedDate": "2023-10-25T04:00:00Z",
    "docketId": "PHMSA-2021-0046",
    "objectId": "PHMSA-2021-0046-0078",
    "openForComment": false,
    "withdrawn": false,
    "url": "https://www.regulations.gov/document/PHMSA-2021-0046-0078",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-08T16:52:33.693Z"
}

💎 Why Choose the Regulations.gov Scraper?

Feature	Our Tool	Manual Regulations.gov
Batch collection	Up to 5,000 records	Browse 25 at a time
Multi-type search	Documents, comments, dockets	Switch between tabs
Agency filtering	Any federal agency	Limited dropdown
Date range	Precise YYYY-MM-DD filtering	Basic date picker
Structured output	JSON, CSV, Excel	HTML pages only
Automated scheduling	Daily/weekly monitoring	Manual visits

📋 How to Use

1. Sign Up - Create a free account w/ $5 credit
2. Configure - set your search term, document type, and filters
3. Run It - click "Start" and get structured regulatory data in seconds

No coding, no setup, no manual browsing required.

🎯 Business Use Cases

• ⚖️ Compliance officers - monitor new rules and proposed regulations affecting your industry
• 🏛️ Lobbyists - track regulatory activity across multiple agencies and dockets
• 📰 Journalists - research public comments and agency actions on policy issues
• 🎓 Researchers - analyze patterns in regulatory activity, comment volumes, and agency behavior
• 🏢 Law firms - build databases of regulatory actions for client advisories
• 📊 Policy analysts - monitor rulemaking timelines and comment periods across agencies

❓ FAQ

📜 What is Regulations.gov? Regulations.gov is the official U.S. government portal where federal agencies publish proposed rules, final rules, notices, and accept public comments on regulatory actions.

🔑 Do I need an API key? The scraper works with the included DEMO_KEY for testing (30 requests/minute, 50/hour). For production use, get a free key at api.data.gov/signup for higher limits.

📋 What's the maximum number of results? The Regulations.gov API limits results to 5,000 per search (20 pages of 250). Use date ranges or agency filters to narrow large result sets.

⏱️ How long does a run take? About 2-3 seconds per page of 250 results. A full 5,000-record fetch takes approximately 30 seconds.

🏛️ What agency codes can I use? Common codes: EPA, FDA, FCC, DOT, HHS, NHTSA, OSHA, SEC, USDA, DOE, DOD, DOI, DOJ, DOL, ED, HUD, SBA, VA.

🔗 Integrate Regulations.gov Scraper with any app

• Make - Automate regulatory monitoring workflows
• Zapier - Get alerts when new rules are published
• Slack - Get notified about comment period deadlines
• Google Drive - Export regulatory data to spreadsheets
• Webhooks - Trigger actions when runs complete

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Pro Tip: Browse our complete collection of data collection actors to find the perfect tool for your needs.

🆘 Need Help?

• Check the FAQ section above for common questions
• Visit the Apify documentation for platform guides
• Contact us at Tally contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Regulations.gov, the eRulemaking Program, or any federal agency. It accesses only publicly available data through the official Regulations.gov public API.