The CFR is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to federal regulation.

Congress frequently delegates authority to an executive branch agency to issue regulations to govern some sphere.

While new regulations are continually becoming effective, the printed volumes of the CFR are issued once each calendar year, on this schedule: The Office of the Federal Register also keeps an unofficial, online version of the CFR, the e-CFR, which is normally updated within two days after changes that have been published in the Federal Register become effective.

[6] The CFR is divided into 50 titles that represent broad subject areas:[2] The Federal Register Act originally provided for a complete compilation of all existing regulations promulgated prior to the first publication of the Federal Register, but was amended in 1937 to provide a codification of all regulations every five years.

[9] According to AALL, a survey they conducted "revealed that members of the public, librarians, researchers, students, attorneys, and small business owners continue to rely on the print" version of the Federal Register.

[9] AALL also argued that the lack of print versions of the Federal Register and CFR would mean the 15 percent of Americans who do not use the internet would lose their access to that material.