The Unified Agenda

Online Availability:  1994 forward
Issued: Biannual

Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 51735) and the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 602) require that agencies publish semiannual regulatory agendas describing regulatory actions they are developing or have recently completed. Agencies of the United States Congress are not included. The agendas are published in the Federal Register, usually during April and October each year, as part of the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The Unified Agenda has appeared in the Federal Register twice each year since 1983 and is available electronically on GPO's FDsys website from 1994 forward.

The Unified Agenda is compiled by the General Services Administration's Regulatory Information Service Center in cooperation with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), part of the Office of Management and Budget. It is then published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

In the table of contents for the Federal Register issue, the agendas are listed by the issuing agency under the Proposed Rule section of the Federal Register. Each agenda begins with a preamble and a table of contents.

The Regulatory Information Service Center assigns a Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) to identify each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda.

Example: RIN: 1205-AB40: Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance Benefits; Amendment of Regulations

Change in Unified Agenda, effective Fall 2007

Beginning with the fall 2007 edition of the Unified Agenda, agencies publish in the Federal Register only those Agenda entries for rules which are likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities and entries that have been selected for periodic review under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. For fall editions, the entire Regulatory Plan, required by Executive Order 12866, is also published in the Federal Register.

An edition of the Unified Agenda containing additional regulatory information that does not appear in the Federal Register version is available online through Reginfo.gov. The version on FDsys is identical to the version printed in the Federal Register. Please see Reginfo.gov for Regulatory Agenda information not published in the Federal Register.