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The CFR exists because the United States Congress often grants broad authority to executive branch agencies to interpret the statutes in the United States Code which the agencies are entrusted with carrying out. This is either because Congress is too busy or congested to micromanage the jurisdiction of those agencies by writing statutes that cover every possible detail, or Congress feels that the technical specialists at the agency are best equipped to develop detailed applications of statutes to particular fact patterns as they arise.
Under the Administrative Procedure Act, the agencies are permitted to promulgate detailed rules and regulations through a public " rulemaking" process where the public is allowed to comment. After a period of time, the rules and regulations are published in the Federal Register and incorporated into the CFR. Under the Chevron doctrine, the regulations are then treated by the courts as effective as statutory law, as long as they are a reasonable interpretation of the underlying statutes.
For example, if Congress passed a law that simply stated that there are not to be "excessive" levels of mercury in any significant body of water in the United States (but defined things no further), an entity designated, as part of the law, to enforce it (probably the United States Environmental Protection Agency) could define in a scientific way what an excessive level of mercury is, as well as what constitutes a significant body of water. The Agency's definitions, and its plan of enforcement for what Congress intended (along with listed penalties for violation coming from Congress unless Congress specified otherwise) will all go into the CFR.
Also, enabling legislation can be passed by Congress which gives a federal non-Congressional entity wide latitude in creating rules. For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency could be designated by Congress to pass rules "that control harmful pollutants"; the Agency could then pass broad rules (including definitions and enforcement provisions), in the absence of existing specific laws, to control lead emmissions, radon emissions, pesticide emissions, and so forth. Such rules, including any Congressional- or Agency-created definitions and enforcement provisions, will all go into the CFR.
Most American lawyers perceive the Federal regulations to be even more dense and unreadable than their counterpart statutes in the United States Code.
The CFR is a multi-volume set divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. While new regulations are continually becoming effective, the physical printing of the CFR is updated on a set schedule. Each volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar year and is issued on a quarterly basis.
When finalized, new regulations are published in the Federal Register with CFR part numbers, such as 42 CFR 260.11(a), that can be cited immediately, without waiting for a page number from the physical copy.
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