Decision: Display of rules and NPRMs in sidebar

Thing	Info
Relevant features	Supplemental content sidebar
Date started	2021-10-18
Date finished
Decision status
Summary of outcome

Background/context

When you need to interpret or update a piece of regulation, you often need to look up the rules and NPRMs that contributed to that piece, because they include essential background information about CMCS regulatory decisions. It can be very tedious to track down whole sequences of NPRMs and final rules.

We want to display relevant rules in the sidebar subpart-by-subpart (and ideally also section-by-section), and we want those rules to be connected to their relevant NPRMs. See our supplemental content sidebar prototype, under "Rules with Preambles". Our users have been very excited about this prototype.

Core questions

How can we do this?

How far can we get to that goal in an automated fashion? What elements might need to be done by hand?

What should we do as helpful intermediate steps in iterative development toward this goal?

What we know

FR documents cite relevant CFR parts and sections

Each Federal Register document (such as a rule or NPRM) includes unstructured information about which sections it amends. For example, for this proposed rule, it says:

• In the Preamble: "we are proposing to amend § 447.502"
• In the end part where it describes the specific proposed change: "Amend § 447.502 by revising the definitions of “States” and “United States” to read as follows"

Each Federal Register document also includes a structured list of the parts it is related to. For example, for that same rule, the right sidebar includes: 42 CFR 433 42 CFR 438 42 CFR 447 42 CFR 456. The Federal Register API includes this structured data for documents (cfr_references).

Older FR documents (mostly 1994 and older) often have incomplete information in the Federal Register API, either plain text or scans without OCR - for example, see this 1994 rule available in plain text.

CFR parts, subparts, and sections cite relevant FR documents

CFR text includes semi-structured data about its relationship to FR documents:

• Each part has a "Source" (FR document) statement at the beginning.

  • Example: Part 438 says "Source: 67 FR 41095, June 14, 2002, unless otherwise noted."

• Some subparts: have a "Source" statement at the beginning.

  • Example: Part 438 Subpart A says "Source: 81 FR 27853, May 6, 2016, unless otherwise noted."

• Most sections have footnotes that tell which FR documents established that section and updated it.

  • Example: Part 438, Subpart A, Section 438.4 says: "[81 FR 27853, May 6, 2016, as amended at 85 FR 72837, Nov. 13, 2020; 85 FR 72837, Nov. 13, 2020]"

Related documents have related docket numbers

Each FR document has a structured "Agency/Docket Number". We may be able to use this docket number to automatically group Final Rules and NPRMs.

• For example, for that same May 2021 proposed rule, the number is CMS-2482-P2. This number is available via the FR API (docket_ids).
• That proposed rule says that it is proposing to delay the implementation of a December 2020 final rule (85 FR 87000) that has the docket ID of CMS-2482-F. It has the same list of related parts: 42 CFR 433 42 CFR 438 42 CFR 447 42 CFR 456.
• That final rule references a June 2020 proposed rule with the number of 85 FR 37256, but the FR site links it to an unrelated rule because there appears to be a typo (?!?). The actual proposed rule it should reference is 85 FR 37286, which has a docket ID of CMS-2482-P. Also same list of related parts: 42 CFR 433 42 CFR 438 42 CFR 447 42 CFR 456.

We're not sure how consistent CMS has been over the last few decades about using these docket numbers in a structured way consistently.

Also, as that example shows, there is not a simple 1:1 relationship between a Final Rule and an NPRM. It's messy:

• A Final Rule can be related to a later followup NPRM
• A Final Rule can be related to multiple earlier NPRMs
• A NPRM can be related to multiple earlier Final Rules
• There can be a NPRM that never has a Final Rule
• There can be an Interim Final Rule that didn't have an NPRM (although rare)

What we've done so far

So far, we've used the FR API to create lists of documents relevant to specific parts (rules, NPRMs, and RFIs). We display them in our subpart sidebars and on our homepage.

What we don't know

• Can we collect up the semi-structured FR citations in the CFR text and use them to create section-by-section and subpart-by-subpart lists of related final rules? (Can we automate that reliably?)
• Can we use the docket numbers to group together related NPRMs and Final Rules? (Can we automate that reliably? If we can't automate that reliably, can we build a way for a program to do a rough pass that a person can then correct in our admin UI?)

Things we need to decide + options for them

What could be a good sequence of stories to get toward this goal?

Stories that exist:

• Spike: Can we correlate NPRMs and Final Rules automatically?

How should we handle older NPRMs and Final Rules in the sidebar?

Consequences