Background & Resources

Understanding Legal Citations

The Federal Register Watcher extracts citations from every document. This page explains how the legislative and administrative tracks relate to the Federal Register.

Code
LEGISLATIVE TRACK (Congress)
[Passes a Bill] ──▶ Public Law (Pub. L.) ──▶ Statutes at Large (Stat.) ──▶ U.S. Code (U.S.C.)
                                                                                  │
                                                                           Gives Authority To
                                                                                  │
                     ADMINISTRATIVE TRACK (Agencies)                              ▼
[Final Rule] ────▶ Federal Register (FR) ─────────────────────────▶ Code of Fed Regs (CFR)

Citation	Full Name	Who Makes It?	What Is It?	Relationship to Federal Register
Pub. L.	Public Law	Congress	An individual bill passed by Congress and signed into law.	FR documents cite Public Laws as their legal authority, but aren't codified into them.
Stat.	Statutes at Large	Congress	The official, chronological bound collection of all Public Laws.	Congress's version of a session log. Completely separate from administrative FR documents.
U.S.C.	United States Code	Congress	The permanent codification of statutory laws, organized by topic (54 Titles).	Agencies cite U.S.C. sections in the FR to show they have the legal right to make a rule.
FR	Federal Register	Executive Agencies	The official daily publication for agency notices, proposed rules, final rules, and presidential actions.	The source material. Final rules printed here get integrated into the CFR.
CFR	Code of Federal Regulations	Executive Agencies	The permanent codification of executive agency rules, organized by topic (50 Titles).	The ONLY place FR final rules are codified. The FR is the daily announcement; the CFR is the permanent subject-matter book.
E.O.	Executive Orders	President	Directives issued by the President to manage executive branch operations.	E.O.s are published in the FR, and subsequently compiled in Title 3 of the CFR.

Last modified on November 10, 2026

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