1. United States Code
In 1926, the U.S. government compiled all legislation (except the Declaration of Independence, Federal Regulations, and Federal Constitution) enacted by Congress more than two hundred years after the founding of the nation. The legislation was systematically classified into 50 items and named as the United States Code (United States Code). Code, USC for short)", this is the first edition of the "United States Code."
At present, the procedure for generating any law in the United States is: First, a bill is introduced by a member of Congress. After the bill is passed by the Congress, it is submitted to the President of the United States for approval. Once the bill is approved by the President, it becomes a law (ACT). When a law is passed, while a separate version is issued, the Office of the Law Revision Committee in the House of Representatives, which is responsible for the codification of the code, decomposes the law into several parts, and arranges the relevant topics according to the different contents of its norms. In volume. In this way, people only need to look at a certain volume to understand all the laws and regulations related to the subject, without having to look up the huge volume of law books.
As a series of books, the "United States Code" is re-edited and promulgated every six years. During the six-year period, the Office of the Law Revision Committee compiled the laws passed by the Congress that year into a supplementary volume according to the serial number of the code. Before the new code has been codified, people can consult and quote the latest legal regulations through supplementary volumes.
According to the different fields involved and the adjustment objects, the "United States Code" is divided into 50 topics, each topic corresponds to a volume (Title), and each volume is arranged according to chapters, sections, sections, paragraphs, and items. Except for the general themes of the first six volumes, the remaining volumes are arranged in alphabetical order. The content of the "United States Code" can be inquired on the official website of the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) at //www.gpo.gov/.
2. United States Federal Register
The US "Federal Register (Federal Register)" is the government gazette of the US federal government. It mainly contains federal laws, administrative regulations, presidential announcements, and proposed rules and announcements. Projects, activities, and public hearings related to various departments of the federal government. Notification etc. Except holidays, it is published every day.
The executive branch of the US federal government, in addition to the office of the President, also includes the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Labor 15 federal ministries, including the Ministry of State, the State Council, the Ministry of Domestic Resources, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transportation, and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, as well as various independent agencies and committees.
Every day, various federal departments issue many regulations and decrees as well as the decrees and decrees to be formulated. These laws and decrees involve all aspects of social life. In order to facilitate people to understand and find the parts they need in thousands of laws and regulations, and to make the formulation of laws and regulations transparent, so that the public can have the opportunity to put forward their own views on the laws and regulations under development, there must be A bulletin board similar to the "Announcement", the "Federal Register" has assumed this important task.
The U.S. Congress passed the "Federal Register Act" in 1935, authorizing the National Archives to manage the editing, publication and distribution of the "Federal Register", and uniformly promulgate the regulations, presidential announcements, and executive orders issued by various federal agencies, as well as the president's opinion. Documents that are universal and legally valid or required to be disclosed by Congress. In addition, it also publishes meeting notices, institutional activities, policy statements and other information. Congress passed the "Administrative Procedure Act" in 1946, stipulating that the Federal Register must provide all relevant information about the regulations under development, publish the draft regulations and their descriptions, and the regulations that are not published in the Federal Register shall not take effect and the regulations shall be published It will take effect after 30 days.
All information in the Federal Register belongs to the government, so there is no copyright restriction and anyone can use it freely. Since 1994, the Federal Register has established its own website //www.federalregister.gov/, which provides searches and full text of the 59th issue from 1994 to the present, including all government notifications, regulatory proposals, and newly issued regulations And revised regulations.
3. U.S. Federal Regulations
The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is a compilation of general and permanent rules published and published in the Federal Register (FR) by executive agencies and departments of the U.S. federal government. It has Universal applicability and legal effect.
In 1936, the Federal Government Gazette Office began to compile all administrative regulations, meeting minutes, decisions, notices, and drafts of administrative regulations to be agreed on that day issued by federal government agencies into the Federal Government Gazette Handbook (equivalent to the full book of federal administrative laws), and published it to the public. , There are five volumes per week from Monday to Friday, with more than 200 volumes per year. Later, due to the increasing number of administrative law books and their complex contents, it was extremely difficult to inquire. Subsequently, the federal government began to compile the administrative code with reference to the codification method of the United States Code.
CFR is also divided into 50 themes in accordance with the fields and adjustment objects covered by legal regulations. Since the federal government has no power to legislate on matters such as the basic system of the country, the subject classification of the CFR is not completely equivalent to the subject of the United States Code, but the two are completely consistent in the names of many subjects. In order to facilitate editing and search by the public, CFR is classified in accordance with the content managed by federal agencies.
The structure and classification of CFR are different from Chinese documentary customs. At present, there are 50 volumes of CFR (Title), and each volume is divided into different chapters according to the issuing department, usually with the name of the regulatory authority as the title, and some chapters are also It is divided into subchapters; each chapter contains several parts (Part) that contain specific regulatory fields, and some parts are divided into subparts due to their large content. Each section consists of several sections (Section) and paragraphs (Paragraph) containing specific regulations. According to the content, the CFR is organized into a volume and published.
The content of CFR covers a wide range. While the US federal law provides authority for the regulations in the CFR, it also sets certain restrictions on the CFR. This means that the regulations under any subject of the CFR should be applied together with the corresponding parts of the United States Code. In some cases, the court can rule that a certain CFR regulation conflicts with federal law as invalid.
According to 44 U.S.C. 1510, the CFR is compiled and updated once a year. In addition to the paper version printed and published every year, the electronic version of the CFR (e-CFR) is also updated daily on the official website of the Government Gazette Office //www.ecfr.gov/.
4. U.S. Government Publishing Agency
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is the oldest government agency in the United States. Its core mission is to ensure that U.S. government information is made public. Its history can be traced back to 1813, when Congress passed a resolution to release information about the work of the three major government agencies to citizens of the United States. Since then, this core task of the GPO has become an inherent function of the government. GPO is responsible for collecting various forms of government information that has been formed, and cataloging, publishing, distributing and preserving this information. It is the main and centralized information resource of the federal government.
The purpose of the GPO was to perform printing work for the needs of Congress. Now it also provides a variety of services for more than 130 departments of the federal government. For example, in addition to providing traditional print production services, it also provides microfilm, CD-ROM, and many electronic information services. In addition, the GPO also provides these publications to the public through commercial sales channels, and at the same time provides these publications free of charge to about 1,250 participating in the Federal Book Deposit Library project in various congressional districts across the country. librarian.
GPO's customer services include: Congress publishing services, government agency publishing services ---providing direct publishing and printing services for contracted institutions, providing regional service networks for offices across the country, and providing pre-sale consulting services for national account administrators, etc. The Congressional Publishing Service Office under the GPO works under the direct leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It provides formal and informal valuation services for printing and printed matter development, and handles all Congressional reprints of stationery, envelopes, free mail and "Congressional Records" And other needs.
