Federal Register Document Corrections

There are different procedures for correcting Federal Register documents, depending on where the document is in the publication process, the type and extent of the error(s), and who is responsible for causing the error(s).

See Document Corrections before Publication for documents that have not yet published

See Correcting the Federal Register and CFR:

• For documents that:
  • have published but have no effective date or are not yet effective, or
  • are in the CFR; and
• To determine who must issue the correction

Withdrawing documents from publication

Correction FAQs

Your agency’s liaison officer is the only one who can request a correction (see 1 CFR 16.2).  This is not a new requirement but we will be more diligent in the enforcement of this provision.

How long will OFR take to publish the correction?

For Federal Register corrections, we will have the correction scheduled for publication within 10 business days of receiving a valid request. However, the actual publication date may take up to an additional two business days.  We do understand the urgency that comes with correcting errors, particularly ones involving dates, and will always attempt to publish the correction as soon as possible after receiving a valid request, but we cannot guarantee a specific publication date until after we have received a valid request. 

For CFR corrections, we will typically have the correction scheduled for publication in 5-7 business days (with the actual publication taking up to an additional 2 business days). However, these requests can require significant research, so we cannot guarantee that we will complete the correction within this time period.

How does OFR decide what is (or is not) an error eligible for OFR correction?

An error is not eligible for OFR correction if: 

• it appeared in the original document your agency sent, or
• it appeared in the edited version that was approved by your agency’s liaison officer. 

What if I wasn’t aware of a change that my agency liaison approved?

We have no way to know if all changes were reviewed and approved within your agency, so when your agency liaison approves a document, that means that we treat all changes the same – as approved. Changes we make and your agency approves are generally not eligible for corrections, unless we err in changing an amendatory instruction that renders it impossible for us to implement in the CFR. This principle also applies to inadvertent changes and to changes made by a system application.

We cannot guarantee harmony between our software, templates, etc., and yours.  Not all versions of MS Word, for example, are seamlessly compatible, so the act of sending a document between two systems can result in changes to a document that OFR will not highlight.  

To avoid unexpected errors, you (agency authors and liaisons) should review your document for any programmatical alterations beyond those specifically highlighted by the scheduling editor. We note that equations and complicated tables are particularly vulnerable to these alterations, but documents with active macros, documents created using older versions of Word and then converted, and documents with hidden content are all vulnerable.

Can I request republication instead of a correction or review OFR’s correction before it publishes?

We retain sole discretion to determine whether to correct or republish a document where we introduced an error.  In either case, our correction will follow a specific format and will not be available for agency review before public inspection.