Federal Register Search - Rules, Regulations, Notices & Executive Orders

Search the Federal Register for rules, proposed rules, notices, and presidential documents. Filter by keyword, agency, publication date, CFR title/part, and the publisher's significant flag. Track reported comment deadlines, regulatory changes, and presidential documents across federal agencies. Export source-linked records with publication/effective dates, docket/RIN/CFR references, exact API provenance, retrieval time, and bounded-query evidence.

Data comes from the official FederalRegister.gov API. No API key is required. Results are publication evidence—not legal advice or proof that a rule currently applies. Review the linked document, corrections, later agency actions, and current codified CFR text.

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Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
documentNumber	string	Federal Register document number
documentTitle	string	Document title
documentType	string	Type: Rule, Proposed Rule, Notice, Presidential Document
abstract	string	Document abstract or summary
publicationDate	string	Date published in the Federal Register
effectiveOn	string	Date the rule or action takes effect
commentsCloseOn	string	Publisher-reported comment deadline
commentDeadlineState	string	Derived deadline state at retrieval time; not a guarantee that comments are still accepted
agencies	array	Issuing federal agencies
docketIds, regulationIdNumbers, cfrReferences	arrays	Available docket, RIN, and CFR references
significant	boolean	Federal Register API significant flag, preserved as reported
htmlUrl, pdfUrl	string	Official document links
sourceApiUrl, retrievedAt	string	Exact official query and UTC retrieval evidence
candidateCount, resultRank, queryScope	number/string	Bounded-search context
searchOutcome	string	FOUND, NO_MATCH, or SOURCE_UNAVAILABLE
coverageNote, interpretationNote	string	Required source and legal-use limitations

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Use Cases

• Regulatory compliance monitoring — Track new rules and proposed rules affecting your industry before they take effect. Set up recurring runs filtered by agency and CFR part.
• Legal and policy research — Search historical rulemaking activity by agency, topic, or CFR reference. Pull abstracts and effective dates for regulatory timeline analysis.
• Government affairs and lobbying — Find proposed rules with open comment periods so clients can submit timely public comments.
• ESG and sustainability analysis — Monitor EPA, DOE, and SEC rulemaking on climate, emissions, and disclosure requirements.
• Investment and risk research — Track significant rules (economic impact > $100M) that may affect regulated industries: healthcare, finance, energy, telecommunications.
• Academic and think tank research — Aggregate rulemaking data by agency, year, or significance for regulatory volume analysis.

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How to Use

Provide a search term and optionally filter by agency, date range, document type, CFR reference, or significance. Leave term empty to retrieve all documents matching the other filters.

Example input — cybersecurity regulations from the SEC:

{
  "term": "cybersecurity",
  "agencies": ["securities-and-exchange-commission"],
  "documentTypes": ["RULE", "PROPOSED_RULE"],
  "dateFrom": "2023-01-01",
  "dateTo": "2024-12-31",
  "significant": false,
  "maxResults": 5
}

Example input — all significant rules from 2024:

{
  "term": "",
  "documentTypes": [],
  "agencies": [],
  "dateFrom": "2024-01-01",
  "dateTo": "2024-12-31",
  "significant": true,
  "maxResults": 25
}

Example input — EPA proposed rules with open comment periods (CFR Title 40):

{
  "term": "",
  "agencies": ["environmental-protection-agency"],
  "documentTypes": ["PROPOSED_RULE"],
  "cfrTitle": "40",
  "dateFrom": "2024-01-01",
  "significant": false,
  "maxResults": 25
}

Example input — executive orders:

{
  "term": "",
  "documentTypes": ["PRESIDENTIAL_DOCUMENT"],
  "agencies": [],
  "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
  "maxResults": 10
}

If all search fields are empty, the actor uses a deterministic artificial intelligence / 5-result fallback so the first run is fast and non-empty. maxResults is a total paid-record cap and is also reduced when the buyer sets a lower Apify maximum charge.

Document Type Options

RULE, PROPOSED_RULE, NOTICE, PRESIDENTIAL_DOCUMENT — or leave the array empty for all types.

Agency Slugs

Use the agency slug format from federalregister.gov (e.g. environmental-protection-agency, securities-and-exchange-commission, federal-reserve-system, centers-for-medicare-medicaid-services). Find all agency slugs at federalregister.gov/agencies.

CFR Reference

Use cfrTitle and cfrPart to filter by Code of Federal Regulations section. Example: Title 40 (Protection of Environment), Part 60 (Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources).

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Pricing

Live pay-per-event pricing is $0.0001 per start event (one event per GB, minimum one) plus $0.002 per dataset record. The 128 MB default still incurs only the minimum one start event. The 5-record first run costs at most $0.0101. A valid no-match or official-source-unavailable outcome is returned as one explicit evidence record rather than an ambiguous blank dataset.

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Output Formats

Results are available as JSON, CSV, and Excel from the Apify dataset interface. Use htmlUrl or pdfUrl to access the full document text.

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FAQ

Does this require an API key? No. The federalregister.gov API is public and requires no authentication.

How far back does Federal Register data go? The Federal Register API covers documents from 1994 onward. For documents before 1994, consult govinfo.gov.

What does significant mean? It is the Federal Register API's publisher-reported significant flag. Definitions and review frameworks can change, and the flag alone is not a current major-rule, economic-impact, legal-effect, or applicability determination.

What is a CFR title and part? The Code of Federal Regulations organizes all federal regulations by title (broad subject area) and part (specific regulatory program). Title 40 covers environmental regulations, Title 26 covers tax, Title 21 covers food and drugs, etc.

How do I find comment periods that may still be open? Filter by documentTypes: ["PROPOSED_RULE"] and a recent dateFrom. commentsCloseOn is the publisher-reported deadline and commentDeadlineState is a mechanical comparison at retrieval time. Extensions, corrections, alternate submission instructions, and agency actions may change the real deadline, so verify it in the linked official document and docket before relying on it.