Use these helpful educational articles, tutorials and videos increase your understanding of the eCFR point-in-time system.

Using the eCFR Point-in-Time System view

  • Getting Started
    The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) provides a way of exploring the Code of Federal Regulations as it exists today and at points in time back to January 2017. The eCFR allows you to:The eCFR is not an official legal edition of the CFR. Understanding the eCFR explains its status and the editorial process. The...
  • Navigating to Content of Interest
    Each title in the CFR is organized hierarchically – for example a title may be divided into chapters, parts, subparts, sections and appendices. Each level of hierarchy provides some context about the content contained in it and is useful in understanding the broader purpose of the content. You can see an example below or...
  • Reading eCFR Content
    In the following screenshot, you see a single section of eCFR. You can see this same page on the eCFR here. The main content is shown in the center of the page. It includes the title of the section, § 578.5 Inflationary adjustment of civil penalties, the text of the content, “The civil penalties set forth ….”, and a...
  • eCFR Changes through time
    Timeline views allow you to compare changes to eCFR content across time. When viewing content, the timeline utility menu item on the left side of the document will allow you to view all changes to the content within the system. The timeline view gives you an overview of all changes (starting 2017) to the content you are...
  • Agencies in eCFR
    With the exception of published content, references to agencies in eCFR.gov are non-official, editorial supplements to the Code of Federal Regulations. These references are derived from CFR chapter headings but may have been modified to help identify the agency or agencies currently associated with the selected content....

Understanding the eCFR view

  • What is the legal status of this publication?
    The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) is a web version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) that we update daily to better reflect its current status. The eCFR is an editorial compilation of CFR material and amendments published in the daily Federal Register. The Administrative Committee of the Federal...
  • How is the eCFR updated?
    The OFR updates the material in the eCFR on a daily basis. While we do not make updates in real-time, generally the eCFR is current within two business days. You can find how current the material is at the top of all eCFR content pages. We capture the amendments posted each day so that you can look at what was posted on an...
  • How is eCFR corrected?
    The eCFR Corrections page, https://www.ecfr.gov/corrections, lists editorial errors OFR made in processing eCFR amendments. The Corrections cites the CFR title and section affected, the corrective action taken, the “current as of” date the error occurred, and the “current as of” date the error was corrected. Where possible...

Government Policy and OFR Procedures view

  • About This Site
    The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) jointly administer the FederalRegister.gov website. We developed this website to make it easier for citizens and communities to understand the regulatory process and to...
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    Send us your questions and feedback:...
  • Privacy
    FederalRegister.gov is an authorized service of the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO). We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your visits to this website. We follow OMB recommendations and best...
  • Accessibility
    We designed this site following Section 508 and W3C accessibility design guidelines. This site uses text-based files and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files, which are text-accessible through the use of Adobe PDF Tools. See more about Adobe Acrobat Reader and PDF Files below. The OFR and GPO are committed to...
  • FOIA
    Federal Register publications, including the FederalRegister.gov website and the various editions of the daily Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Federal Register/CFR indexes, and the Public Laws posted on the Federal Digital System (FDsys.gov) are not subject to the request for records provisions of...

Developer Resources view

  • REST API & Interactive Documentation
    eCFR data originates with the files used to produce the print and PDF editions. During the publication process these are transformed into bulk XML files made available by the Government Publishing Office (GPO). In order to create the point-in-time features of the eCFR we process these XML files into smaller units that we...