Federal Register Scraper: New Rules & Notices Alerts

Get new Federal Register rules, proposed rules, notices and presidential documents as clean rows, with agencies, comment deadlines, docket IDs and CFR references, plus new-document alerts.

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What it does and who it is for

This Actor reads the official Federal Register API (federalregister.gov, no key) and returns one flat record per document: document number, title, type (rule, proposed rule, notice, presidential document), action, abstract, agencies, publication date, effective date, comment close date and days left to comment, significance flag, docket IDs, regulation ID numbers, CFR references, citation, page length, executive order number and president for presidential documents, topics, and links to the page, PDF, full text and comment form.

Filter by keyword (phrases in quotes), agencies, document types, presidential document types, significant-only, comments-open-only, docket ID, CFR title and part, publication or effective date range. Turn on Only new for daily alerts.

Use cases

• Regulatory affairs and compliance teams: watch for new rules in your industry and for proposed rules open for comment.
• Trade associations, lobbyists and law firms: track agency actions and comment deadlines by docket.
• Policy analysts and journalists: a daily feed of significant rules and executive orders.
• Government contractors and grant seekers: follow notices from the agencies you sell to.
• AI agents: answer "which proposed rules mentioning artificial intelligence are still open for comment?".

Why use this instead of the free official site or API

The underlying data is public and the official sources are free. What this Actor adds is convenience: saved searches become scheduled, structured alerts.

What you need	Official site / API	This Actor
Following a topic or agency	Search on the website, or email and RSS subscriptions on federalregister.gov	A saved input on the Apify scheduler that can send rows to Slack, Sheets, webhooks or your own system
Comment deadlines	Open each document to find the date	commentsCloseDate and a computed daysUntilCommentsClose on every row, plus a comments-open-only filter
Structured data	The API returns nested JSON with paging cursors	Flat records, with lists joined into readable text
Only new documents	Compare to the previous list yourself	Only new mode with a named alert

If you only need a single lookup now and then, the official site is fine. If you want the same data on a schedule, as flat rows you can feed to a spreadsheet, CRM or agent, this saves the glue work.

Data fields

Field	Type	What it contains
documentNumber	text	Federal Register document number.
title	text	Document title.
type	text	Rule, Proposed Rule, Notice or Presidential Document.
subtype	text	Presidential document subtype (for example Executive Order), when applicable.
action	text	Action line, for example "Proposed rule." or "Final rule."
abstract	text	Abstract text from the Federal Register.
agencies	text	Agency names, joined with semicolons.
agencySlugs	text	Agency slugs on federalregister.gov, joined with semicolons.
publicationDate	date	Date the document was published in the Federal Register.
effectiveDate	text	Date a rule takes effect, when stated.
commentsCloseDate	date	Date public comments close, when open for comment.
daysUntilCommentsClose	integer	Days from the run date until comments close.
significant	boolean	Whether OMB flagged the document as significant.
datesText	text	The "Dates" section text as printed in the document.
docketIds	text	Agency docket ID(s).
regulationIdNumbers	text	Regulation Identifier Number(s) (RIN).
cfrReferences	text	Code of Federal Regulations references.
citation	text	Federal Register citation (volume, FR, page).
pageLength	integer	Number of pages.
executiveOrderNumber	text	Executive order number, for executive orders.
signingDate	text	Signing date, for presidential documents.
president	text	President who signed, for presidential documents.
topics	text	Topic terms assigned to the document.
url	text	Link to the document on federalregister.gov.
pdfUrl	text	Link to the PDF.
textUrl	text	Link to the plain-text version.
commentUrl	text	Link to submit a comment on regulations.gov, when commenting is open.
scrapedAt	datetime	When the Actor collected the record (UTC).

Fields a source does not publish are null.

"New since yesterday" alerts

Turn on Only new and the Actor remembers what it has already returned, so each scheduled run delivers only records you have not seen before.

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console and set the input, with Only new since last run switched on and a fixed alert name (stateKey). Example input:

{
  "agencies": ["EPA"],
  "documentTypes": ["RULE", "PRORULE"],
  "publishedWithinDays": 7,
  "maxResults": 100,
  "onlyNew": true,
  "stateKey": "daily-epa-rules"
}

2. Click Save as task, then open Schedules, create a schedule (for example the cron expression 0 7 * * * for every day at 7:00 in the time zone you pick) and add the task to it.
3. Under the task's Integrations, send the results to Slack, email, Google Sheets, a webhook or your own system.

The Federal Register publishes each business day. A 7-day window with Only new gives each document once.

The first run returns everything that matches your window (all matching documents published in the last 7 days); later runs return only unseen records. Use a different alert name for each task so each keeps its own memory. A run with nothing new returns no results.

Cost per run

This Actor uses pay-per-result pricing: $3.00 per 1,000 results ($0.003 per result), with the Apify platform fee included. You are charged for the records a run returns and nothing is added on top for platform usage. A run that finds nothing new returns no results, so it has no per-result charge. The Max results input caps what a run can return (and so what it can cost).

Worked example: a daily alert that returns 6 new documents costs 6 × $0.003 = $0.018 per run, about $0.54 for a 30-day month. Pulling 3,000 documents costs $9.00.

The pricing is configured in Apify Console; the Pricing tab on this page is the authoritative source if it ever differs from this text.

Example input and output

The output below comes from real test runs of this Actor. Email addresses are masked and very long text is shortened here; the Actor returns the full values.

Input used for the example:

{
  "keyword": "artificial intelligence",
  "documentTypes": ["PRORULE"],
  "commentsOpenOnly": true,
  "publishedWithinDays": 90,
  "onlyNew": true,
  "stateKey": "ai-proposed-rules",
  "maxResults": 25
}

Output (the first 2 records of a test run):

[
  {
    "documentNumber": "2026-21658",
    "title": "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Electronic Benefits Transfer Card Security Measures",
    "type": "Proposed Rule",
    "subtype": null,
    "action": "Proposed rule.",
    "abstract": "The Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA or the Agency), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA or the Department), is issuing a rule proposing changes to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP,…",
    "agencies": "Agriculture Department; Food and Nutrition Administration",
    "agencySlugs": "agriculture-department; food-and-nutrition-administration",
    "publicationDate": "2026-10-23",
    "effectiveDate": null,
    "commentsCloseDate": "2026-12-22",
    "daysUntilCommentsClose": 60,
    "significant": true,
    "datesText": "Written comments must be received on or before December 22, 2026 to be assured of consideration.",
    "docketIds": "FNS-2025-0137",
    "regulationIdNumbers": "0584-AE99",
    "cfrReferences": "7 CFR 271; 7 CFR 274; 7 CFR 278",
    "citation": "91 FR 66958",
    "pageLength": 40,
    "executiveOrderNumber": null,
    "signingDate": null,
    "president": "Donald Trump",
    "topics": "Food stamps; Grant programs-social programs",
    "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/23/2026-21658/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-electronic-benefits-transfer-card-security-measures",
    "pdfUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-10-23/pdf/2026-21658.pdf",
    "textUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/text/2026/10/23/2026-21658.txt",
    "commentUrl": null,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-23T12:17:10.179Z"
  },
  {
    "documentNumber": "2026-21420",
    "title": "Medicare Program; Implementation of Sections 6219, 6220, and 6224 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026",
    "type": "Proposed Rule",
    "subtype": null,
    "action": "Proposed rule.",
    "abstract": "This proposed rule would implement section 6219 (Adjustments to Medicare Part D Cost-Sharing Reductions for Low-Income Individuals), section 6220 (Requiring Enhanced and Accurate Lists of (REAL) Health Providers Act), an…",
    "agencies": "Health and Human Services Department; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services",
    "agencySlugs": "health-and-human-services-department; centers-for-medicare-medicaid-services",
    "publicationDate": "2026-10-20",
    "effectiveDate": null,
    "commentsCloseDate": "2026-12-15",
    "daysUntilCommentsClose": 53,
    "significant": null,
    "datesText": "To be assured consideration, comments must be received at one of the addresses provided below, no later than 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on December 15, 2026.",
    "docketIds": "CMS-4214-P",
    "regulationIdNumbers": "0938-AV88",
    "cfrReferences": "42 CFR 422; 42 CFR 423",
    "citation": "91 FR 66408",
    "pageLength": 82,
    "executiveOrderNumber": null,
    "signingDate": null,
    "president": "Donald Trump",
    "topics": "Administrative practice and procedure; Health facilities; Health maintenance organizations (HMO); Medicare; Penalties; Privacy; Reporting and recordkeeping requirements",
    "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/20/2026-21420/medicare-program-implementation-of-sections-6219-6220-and-6224-of-the-consolidated-appropriations",
    "pdfUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-10-20/pdf/2026-21420.pdf",
    "textUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/text/2026/10/20/2026-21420.txt",
    "commentUrl": "http://www.regulations.gov/commenton/CMS-2026-3533-0002",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-23T12:17:10.186Z"
  }
]

Limits worth knowing

• The Federal Register does not publish on weekends or federal holidays, so those scheduled runs return nothing.
• Fields such as effective date, comment close date and docket IDs are only filled when the document has them.
• daysUntilCommentsClose is computed on the run date, so the same document shows a different number on later runs.
• commentUrl is only filled when the document is open for comment.
• The default window is the last 7 days. Set it to 0 for no limit and use Max results to cap the pull.

FAQ

Do I need an API key?

No. The Federal Register API is public.

How do I find rules I can still comment on?

Turn on Comments open only; combine it with proposed rules and a keyword.

Does it include presidential documents?

Yes. Choose the presidential document type and narrow to executive orders, proclamations and so on.

Does it include the full text?

It returns the abstract and links to the full text, PDF and comment form.

Is this legal advice?

No. It returns public records. Check the official document before relying on it.

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Data comes from the Federal Register (Office of the Federal Register, NARA), a US government source. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. Not legal advice.