About this Collection
The Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) is "the codification of the general and permanent rules by the department and agencies of the Federal Government." This is a historical collection of the Code of Federal Regulations dating from 1938 - 1995. To access the Code of Regulations from 1996 – present, please visit the Government Publishing Office site, GovInfo.
The C.F.R. has 50 titles, with each title focusing on a subject area. The titles are in turn broken down into chapters, which are often named for the agency that issued the rules included, subchapters, parts, and occasionally subparts, before coming down to individual rules or "sections." Some titles are brief, spanning only a single slim volume, while others may fill twenty volumes.
A citation to the C.F.R. (for example 25 C.F.R. 531.1) indicates the title of the CFR (here, Title 25), and then provides the section number within that Title where the rule is located (here, section 531.1, which is located in part 531). For more information on the use of the Code of Federal Regulations, please see the Law Library's blog post, "How to Trace Federal Regulations - A Research Guide."
If you have a question regarding the Code of Federal Regulations, please contact the Law Library of Congress through our Ask A Librarian service.