IIB 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4195 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 15, 2014 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs 

AN ACT 

To amend chapter 15 of title 44, United States Code (commonly known as the Federal Register Act), to modernize 

the Federal Register, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Register Mod3 ernization Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FEDERAL REGISTER MODERNIZATION. 

5 (a) REFERENCES TO PRINTING.—Chapter 15 of title 

6 44, United States Code, is amended— 

7 (1) in section 1502— 

8 (A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘print9 ing’’ and inserting ‘‘publishing’’; and 

10 (B) by striking ‘‘printing and distribution’’ 

11 and inserting ‘‘publishing’’; 

12 (2) in section 1507 is amended— 

13 (A) by striking ‘‘the duplicate originals or 

14 certified copies of the document have’’ and in15 serting ‘‘the document has’’; and 

16 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘print17 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘published’’; and 

18 (3) in section 1509, in subsections (a) and (b) 

19 of, by striking ‘‘printing, reprinting, wrapping, bind20 ing, and distributing’’ and inserting ‘‘publishing’’, 

21 each place it appears. 

22 (b) PUBLISH DEFINED.—Section 1501 of title 44, 

23 United States Code, is amended— 

24 (1) by striking ‘‘; and’’ at the end of the defini25 tion for ‘‘person’’ and inserting a semicolon; 


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1 (2) by inserting after the definition for ‘‘per2 son’’ the following: 

3 ‘‘ ‘publish’ means to circulate for sale or dis4 tribution to the public; and’’. 

5 (c) FILING DOCUMENTS WITH OFFICE AMEND6 MENT.—Section 1503 of title 44, United States Code, is 

7 amended to read as follows: 

8 ‘‘§ 1503. Filing documents with Office; notation of 

9 time; public inspection; transmission for 

10 publishing 

11 ‘‘The original document required or authorized to be 

12 published by section 1505 of this title shall be filed with 

13 the Office of the Federal Register for publication at times 

14 established by the Administrative Committee of the Fed15 eral Register by regulation. The Archivist of the United 

16 States shall cause to be noted on the original of each docu17 ment the day and hour of filing. Upon filing, the document 

18 shall be immediately available for public inspection in the 

19 Office. The original shall be retained by the National Ar20 chives and Records Administration and shall be available 

21 for inspection under regulations prescribed by the Archi22 vist, unless such original is disposed of in accordance with 

23 disposal schedules submitted by the Administrative Com24 mittee and authorized by the Archivist pursuant to regula25 tions issued under chapter 33 of this title; however, origiVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:48 Jul 16, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4195.RFS H4195

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1 nals of proclamations of the President and Executive or2 ders shall be permanently retained by the Administration 

3 as part of the National Archives of the United States. The 

4 Office shall transmit to the Government Printing Office, 

5 as provided by this chapter, each document required or 

6 authorized to be published by section 1505 of this title. 

7 Every Federal agency shall cause to be transmitted for 

8 filing the original of all such documents issued, prescribed, 

9 or promulgated by the agency.’’. 

10 (d) FEDERAL REGISTER AMENDMENT.—Section 

11 1504 of title 44, United States Code, is amended to read 

12 as follows: 

13 ‘‘§ 1504. ‘Federal Register’; publishing; contents; dis14 tribution; price 

15 ‘‘Documents required or authorized to be published 

16 by section 1505 of this title shall be published immediately 

17 by the Government Printing Office in a serial publication 

18 designated the ‘Federal Register’. The Public Printer shall 

19 make available the facilities of the Government Printing 

20 Office for the prompt publication of the Federal Register 

21 in the manner and at the times required by this chapter 

22 and the regulations prescribed under it. The contents of 

23 the daily issues shall constitute all documents, required 

24 or authorized to be published, filed with the Office of the 

25 Federal Register up to the time of the day immediately 


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1 preceding the day of publication fixed by regulations under 

2 this chapter. There shall be published with each document 

3 a copy of the notation, required to be made by section 

4 1503 of this title, of the day and hour when, upon filing 

5 with the Office, the document was made available for pub6 lic inspection. Distribution shall be made at a time in the 

7 morning of the day of distribution fixed by regulations 

8 prescribed under this chapter. The prices to be charged 

9 for the Federal Register may be fixed by the Administra10 tive Committee of the Federal Register established by sec11 tion 1506 of this title without reference to the restrictions 

12 placed upon and fixed for the sale of Government publica13 tions by sections 1705 and 1708 of this title.’’. 

14 (e) DOCUMENTS TO BE PUBLISHED IN FEDERAL

15 REGISTER.—Section 1505 of title 44, United States Code, 

16 is amended— 

17 (1) in subsection (b)— 

18 (A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘COM19 MENTS’’ and inserting ‘‘NEWS COMMENTARY’’; 

20 and 

21 (B) by striking ‘‘comments’’ and inserting 

22 ‘‘news commentary’’; and 

23 (2) in subsection (c), in the matter following 

24 paragraph (2)— 


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1 (A) by inserting ‘‘telecommunications, the 

2 Internet,’’ after ‘‘the press, the radio,’’; and 

3 (B) by striking ‘‘and two duplicate origi4 nals or two certified copies’’ and inserting ‘‘doc5 ument’’. 

6 (f) ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE FEDERAL

7 REGISTER AMENDMENT.—Section 1506 of title 44, 

8 United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 

9 ‘‘§ 1506. Administrative Committee of the Federal 

10 Register; establishment and composition; 

11 powers and duties 

12 ‘‘The Administrative Committee of the Federal Reg13 ister shall consist of the Archivist of the United States 

14 or Acting Archivist, who shall chair the committee, an offi15 cer of the Department of Justice designated by the Attor16 ney General, and the Public Printer or Acting Public 

17 Printer. The Director of the Federal Register shall act as 

18 secretary of the committee. The committee shall prescribe, 

19 with the approval of the President, regulations for car20 rying out this chapter. The regulations shall provide for, 

21 among other things— 

22 ‘‘(1) the documents which shall be authorized 

23 under section 1505(b) of this title to be published in 

24 the Federal Register; 


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1 ‘‘(2) the manner and form in which the Federal 

2 Register shall be published; 

3 ‘‘(3) the manner of distribution to Members of 

4 Congress, officers and employees of the United 

5 States, or Federal agency, for official use, and the 

6 number which shall be available for distribution to 

7 the public; 

8 ‘‘(4) the prices to be charged for individual cop9 ies of, and subscriptions to, the Federal Register 

10 and any reprints and bound volumes of it; 

11 ‘‘(5) the manner and form by which the Federal 

12 Register may receive information and comments 

13 from the public, if practicable and efficient; and 

14 ‘‘(6) special editions of the Federal Register.’’. 

15 (g) CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS AMEND16 MENT.—Section 1510 of title 44, United States Code, is 

17 amended to read as follows: 

18 ‘‘§ 1510. Code of Federal Regulations 

19 ‘‘(a) SPECIAL EDITION FOR CODIFICATION OF AGEN20 CY DOCUMENTS.—The Administrative Committee of the 

21 Federal Register, with the approval of the President, may 

22 require, from time to time as it considers necessary, the 

23 preparation and publication in a special edition of the Fed24 eral Register a complete codification of the documents of 

25 each agency of the Government having general applicaVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:48 Jul 16, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4195.RFS H4195

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1 bility and legal effect, issued or promulgated by the agency 

2 by publication in the Federal Register or by filing with 

3 the Administrative Committee, and which are relied upon 

4 by the agency as authority for, or are invoked or used by 

5 it in the discharge of, its activities or functions, and are 

6 in effect as to facts arising on or after dates specified by 

7 the Administrative Committee. 

8 ‘‘(b) CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS.—A codifica9 tion prepared under subsection (a) of this section shall be 

10 published and shall be designated as the ‘Code of Federal 

11 Regulations’. The Administrative Committee shall regu12 late the manner and forms of publishing this codification. 

13 ‘‘(c) SUPPLEMENTATION, COLLATION, AND REPUBLI14 CATION.—The Administrative Committee shall regulate 

15 the supplementation and the collation and republication 

16 of the codification with a view to keeping the Code of Fed17 eral Regulations as current as practicable. Each unit of 

18 codification shall be supplemented and republished at least 

19 once each calendar year. The Office of the Federal Reg20 ister may create updates of each unit of codification from 

21 time to time and make the same available electronically 

22 or may provide public access using an electronic edition 

23 that allows a user to select a specific date and retrieve 

24 the version of the codification in effect as of that date. 


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1 ‘‘(d) PREPARATION AND PUBLICATION BY THE FED2 ERAL REGISTER.—The Office of the Federal Register 

3 shall prepare and publish the codifications, supplements, 

4 collations, and user aids authorized by this section. 

5 ‘‘(e) PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE.—The codified docu6 ments of the several agencies published in the Code of 

7 Federal Regulations under this section, as amended by 

8 documents subsequently filed with the Office and pub9 lished in the daily issues of the Federal Register, shall 

10 be prima facie evidence of the text of the documents and 

11 of the fact that they are in effect on and after the date 

12 of publication. 

13 ‘‘(f) REGULATIONS.—The Administrative Committee, 

14 with approval of the President, shall issue regulations for 

15 carrying out this section. 

16 ‘‘(g) EXCEPTION.—This section does not require 

17 codification of the text of Presidential documents pub18 lished and periodically compiled in supplements to title 3 

19 of the Code of Federal Regulations.’’. 

20 (h) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

21 The table of sections for chapter 15 of title 44, United 

22 States Code, is amended by striking the items related to 

23 sections 1502, 1503, and 1504 and inserting the following: 

‘‘1502. Custody and publishing of Federal documents; appointment of Director. 


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‘‘1503. Filing documents with Office; notation of time; public inspection; transmission for publishing. 

‘‘1504. ‘Federal Register’; publishing; contents; distribution; price.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives July 14, 2014. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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