Regulatory Drafting Guide

We recommend that agencies use this guide when drafting regulatory documents for publication in the Federal Register to improve clarity and enforceability.

In addition to this guide, use:

• the Document Drafting Handbook (DDH) for formatting, style, and codification requirements
• the Government Publishing Office (GPO) Style Manual (most recent version) for style requirements (including punctuation, capitalization, and spelling) not included in the DDH
• the Federal Plain Language Guidelines for additional plain language principles