44 U.S.C. § 1505 — Documents to be published in Federal Register

(a) Presidential proclamations and Executive orders; documents with general applicability and legal effect; documents Congress requires to be published. The Federal Register must publish: (1) Presidential proclamations and Executive orders, except those that do not generally apply and have legal effect or that apply only to Federal agencies or people acting as their officers, agents, or employees; (2) documents or categories of documents that the President determines generally apply and have legal effect; and (3) documents or categories of documents that an Act of Congress requires to be published. For this chapter, every document or order that sets a penalty generally applies and has legal effect. (b) Documents authorized for publication by regulations; news commentary and news items excluded. In addition to those documents, the Federal Register must publish other documents or categories authorized by regulations issued under this chapter with the President's approval. It may not publish news commentary or news items of any kind. (c) Alternative publication. During a continuity-of-operations event in which the Government Publishing Office does not meet this chapter's publication requirements, the Office of the Federal Register may create another way to publish the Federal Register until the Government Publishing Office resumes publication. (d) Suspending document-filing requirements; alternate systems for issuing, filing, or publishing documents; preserving originals. If there is an attack or threatened attack on the continental United States and the President determines that, because of it, (1) publishing the Federal Register or filing documents with the Office of the Federal Register is not practicable, or (2) publication in the Federal Register would not give the public suitable notice of documents' contents, the President may, regardless of any other law, suspend all or part of the legal or regulatory requirements for filing documents with the Office or publishing them in the Federal Register. The suspension lasts until revoked by the President or ended by a concurrent resolution of Congress. The President must establish alternate systems for issuing, filing, or publishing affected documents, including rules about their effectiveness or validity, that may reasonably give public notice of their issuance and contents under the circumstances. The systems may use regional or specialized publications or depositories, the press, radio, telecommunications, the Internet, or similar general communication methods. Compliance with an alternate filing or publication system has the same effect as filing with the Office or publishing in the Federal Register under this chapter or another law or regulation. Each agency must preserve the original of a document issued under an alternate system for filing with the Office when the President determines that filing is practicable.