Introduction
Federal and state regulations are promulgated by administrative agencies and have the same effect as statutory law. Federal regulations are first published as a proposed rule and as a final rule in the Federal Register before they are codified in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Just as you might trace the legislative history of a statute to derive additional meaning or intent, you can also trace the history of a regulation. While the CFR includes the text of the regulation, the Federal Register will also include historical material. Once you have a citation in hand to your regulation of interest, follow these steps to compile a regulatory history.
