[This post was written by OFR intern Lissa N. Snyders]
Although agency regulations are not official until they are published in the Federal Register, the public has the opportunity to preview these documents before they are published. All documents that will be printed in the Federal Register are made available to the public at least one day before they are published. This process is called Public Inspection.
Originally the public had to visit the Office of the Federal Register in Washington, DC, in person, to physically look at documents that they were interested in. Lines would often form outside our door to view high interest documents. Now that the Public Inspection List is available online, the physical Public Inspection Desk sees few visitors.
The documents on Public Inspection will not always be published in the next day’s Federal Register, however. Some documents are on Public Inspection for more than one day to allow the public additional time to view it. Agencies may also request that their document no longer be published. Some reasons for this may include that the document is no longer necessaryor they need to make revisions.
The Public Inspection List is available each federal working day at 8:45 am EST. Some documents are submitted after the list is posted for the day and will be included later that day, typically at 11:15 am and 4:15 pm. These are called “Special Filing” documents and generally include meeting notices required by the Sunshine Act or documents with a legal deadline. Special Filing documents published in the most recent update are marked with a green bullet point, shown in the example below, to make them easy to spot.
Beginning in March, the Federal Register Public Inspection List is onlyavailable in person at the Office of the Federal Register Public Inspection Desk or online at www.federalregister.gov. Follow @FedRegister and #PIL on Twitter for daily updates on the Public Inspection List. You can also sign up for email notifications of new documents by creating an account on federalregister.gov.
Learn more about Public Inspection on our website.
