Federal Register Monitor

Monitor and search the US Federal Register for rules, proposed rules, notices, and presidential documents. Track comment deadlines, filter by agency, keyword, significance, and more.

What does Federal Register Monitor do?

This Actor searches the Federal Register API to find and monitor regulatory documents published by US federal agencies. It extracts structured data including document metadata, comment deadlines, agency information, and CFR references — ready for integration into compliance workflows, policy tracking dashboards, and alerting systems.

Why use this Actor?

• No API key required — the Federal Register API is free and public
• Monitor mode — schedule daily/weekly runs to automatically catch new regulations
• Comment deadline tracking — find documents with open comment periods and approaching deadlines
• Flexible filtering — search by keyword, agency, document type, significance, docket ID, or date range
• Handles large result sets — automatically splits queries that exceed API pagination limits

How much does it cost?

This Actor uses pay-per-result pricing at $0.35 per 1,000 documents ($0.00035 each), plus minimal Apify platform compute costs.

Scenario	Results	Estimated cost
First run (default prefill)	20	< $0.01
Keyword search	100	~$0.04
Weekly compliance report	500	~$0.18
Daily monitor (last 24h)	~50/day	~$0.02/day
Large research pull	3,000	~$1.05

Input

Field	Type	Description
searchTerm	string	Keyword or phrase to search for
documentTypes	array	Filter by type: Final Rule, Proposed Rule, Notice, Presidential Document
agencies	array	Filter by agency slug (e.g. environmental-protection-agency)
dateFrom / dateTo	date	Publication date range
significant	boolean	Only economically significant rules (EO 12866)
monitorMode	boolean	Auto-set date range for scheduled runs
monitorSinceDays	integer	Look back N days in monitor mode (default: 1)
maxResults	integer	Limit results (default: 50, prefill: 20)
onlyOpenComments	boolean	Only return documents with open comment periods
commentDeadlineWithinDays	integer	Comment deadline closing within N days

Output

{
    "documentNumber": "2026-05432",
    "title": "Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework",
    "abstract": "NIST is developing a framework to better manage risks...",
    "type": "PRORULE",
    "subtype": null,
    "action": "Request for comments",
    "agencies": "National Institute of Standards and Technology",
    "agencySlugs": ["national-institute-of-standards-and-technology"],
    "publicationDate": "2026-03-15",
    "effectiveDate": "2026-04-15",
    "commentDeadline": "2026-05-15",
    "isCommentOpen": true,
    "daysUntilCommentClose": 58,
    "significant": true,
    "docketIds": ["NIST-2026-0001"],
    "regulationIdNumbers": ["0693-AB12"],
    "cfrReferences": ["Title 15, Part 285"],
    "topics": ["Artificial Intelligence", "Technology"],
    "pageLength": 12,
    "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/03/15/2026-05432/ai-risk-management",
    "pdfUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/03/15/2026-05432/ai-risk-management.pdf",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-03-18T14:30:00.000Z"
}

Tips and tricks

• Start small: The default prefill of 20 results keeps your first run under $0.01
• Monitor mode: Enable it and schedule the Actor daily to get new regulations automatically
• Comment tracking: Use onlyOpenComments + commentDeadlineWithinDays to find documents where you can still submit public comments
• Agency slugs: Find the right slug by searching on federalregister.gov and checking the URL path

Integrations

• Google Sheets — export results directly via Apify integration
• Zapier / Make — trigger workflows when new regulations match your filters
• Webhooks — send results to your API endpoint after each run
• Email alerts — combine with Apify scheduling for daily regulation digests