Legislation, Regulations & Policies

Code of Federal Regulations

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is the codification of general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by executive departments and agencies of the federal government. The CFR is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to federal regulation and each volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar year and is issued on a quarterly basis.

Federal Register

Published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration, the Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. Sign up to freely receive the daily Federal Register Table of Contents via email!

Health reform

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as PPACA or just ACA. Among the mandates included in this comprehensive health reform legislation are the development of new prevention programs and increases in monitoring and development of the public health workforce.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, text and PDFs of the full act
Healthcare.gov, (formerly HealthReform.gov) information about health reform for consumers
HHS Prevention and Public Health Fund, provide information on the planned use of funds, funding opportunities, and the recipients of awards
National Public Health Improvement Initiative (NPHII), OSTLTS-managed initiative funded through PPACA
National Prevention Strategy

Policies and regulations

Many laws affect the work of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and in turn the work of CDC and its grantees. HHS issues regulations to implement laws and develops policies and guidance for industry, state and local governments, and other organizations. The HHS Regulations page covers topics such as health information technology standards, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), additional laws and regulations, and policies and guidelines are covered.

Office of Management and Budget

As the implementation and enforcement arm of Presidential policy government-wide, the Office of Management and Budget out its mission through five critical processes that are essential to the President’s ability to plan and implement priorities across the Executive Branch:

Budget development and execution, a significant government-wide process managed from the Executive Office of the President and a mechanism by which the President implements decisions, policies, priorities, and actions in all areas (e.g. economic recovery, health care, energy policy, national security)
Management and oversight of agency performance, federal procurement, financial management, and information/IT (including paperwork reduction, privacy, and security)
Coordination and review of all significant federal regulations by executive agencies to reflect Presidential priorities and to ensure that economic and other impacts are assessed as part of regulatory decision-making, along with review and assessment of information collection requests
Legislative clearance and coordination (review and clearance of all agency communications with Congress, including testimony and draft bills) to ensure consistency of agency legislative views and proposals with Presidential policy
Executive Orders and Presidential Memoranda to agency heads and officials, which are the mechanisms by which the President directs specific government-wide actions by Executive Branch officials

Regulations.gov

Regulations.gov is an online source for U.S. government regulations from nearly 300 federal agencies. On this site you can

Search for a regulation, such as a proposed rule, final rule, or Federal Register (FR) notice
Submit a comment on a regulation or to another comment
Submit an application, petition, or adjudication document
Sign up for e-mail alerts about a specific regulation
Quickly access regulations that are popular, newly posted, or closing soon directly from the home page
Subscribe to RSS feeds by agency of newly posted FR notices

Thomas

The Thomas site, a service of the Library of Congress, provides the text of federal bills and legislation, information on Congress, and other legislative resources.

U.S. Code

The United States Code is the codification of general and permanent U.S. laws by subject matter. The Code is divided by broad subjects into 50 titles and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 1926, the United States Code has been published every six years. Between editions, annual cumulative supplements are published in order to present the most current information.

U.S. Government Printing Office

The U.S Government Printing Office provides publishing and dissemination services for official and authentic government publications to Congress, federal agencies, federal depository libraries, and the public.