US LAWS, STATUTES & CODES ON-LINE

47 C.F.R. § 0.445   Publication, availability and use of opinions, orders, policy statements, interpretations, administrative manuals, and staff instructions.

Title 47: Telecommunication
PART 0—COMMISSION ORGANIZATION
Subpart C—General Information
Public Information and Inspection of Records

Browse Previous |  Browse Next

§ 0.445   Publication, availability and use of opinions, orders, policy statements, interpretations, administrative manuals, and staff instructions.

(a) Adjudicatory opinions and orders of the Commission, or its staff acting on delegated authority, are mailed to the parties, and as part of the record, are available for inspection in accordance with §§0.453 and 0.455.

(b) Texts adopted by the Commission or a member of its staff on delegated authority and released through the Office of Media Relations are published in the FCC Record. Older materials of this nature are available in the FCC Reports. In the event that such older materials are not published in the FCC Reports, reference should be made to the Federal Register or Pike and Fischer Radio Regulation.

(c) All rulemaking documents are published in the Federal Register. Summaries of the full Notices of proposed rule making and other rule making decisions adopted by the Commission constitute rulemaking documents for purposes of Federal Register publication. See §1.412(a)(1). The complete text of the Commission decision also is released by the Commission and is available for inspection and copying during normal business hours in the Office of Media Relations or as otherwise specified in the rulemaking document published in the Federal Register. Docketed matters are available to the public via the Electronic Comment Filing System maintained in the Reference Information Center at 445 12th Street, Washington, DC. The complete texts of rulemaking decisions may also be purchased from the Commission's duplicating contractor.

(d) Formal policy statements and interpretations designed to have general applicability and legal effect are published in the Federal Register, the FCC Record, FCC Reports, or Pike and Fischer. Commission decisions and other Commission documents not entitled formal policy statements or interpretations may contain substantive interpretations and statements regarding policy, and these are published as part of the document in the FCC Record, FCC Reports or Pike and Fischer. General statements regarding policy and interpretations furnished to individuals, in correspondence or otherwise, are not ordinarily published.

(e) If the documents described in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section are published in the Federal Register, the FCC Record, FCC Reports, or Pike and Fischer Radio Regulation, they may be relied upon, used or cited as precedent by the Commission or private parties in any manner. If they are not so published, they may not be relied upon, used or cited as precedent, except against persons who have actual notice of the document in question or by such persons against the Commission. No person is expected to comply with any requirement or policy of the Commission unless he has actual notice of that requirement or policy or a document stating it has been published as provided in this paragraph. Nothing in this paragraph, however, shall be construed as precluding a reference to the rationale set forth in a recent document that is pending publication if the requirment or policy to which the rationale relates is contained in a published document or if actual notice of that requirement or policy has been given.

(f) The Federal Register, the FCC Record, FCC Reports and Pike and Fischer Radio Regulation are indexed. If the documents described in paragraphs (a)–(d) of this section are not published, they are neither indexed nor relied upon, except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section.

(g) The FCC Administrative Manual (excepting Part IX, concerning Civil Defense, which contains materials classified under E.O. 10501) is available for inspection in the Office of the Managing Director. The Manual is not indexed but is organized by subject, with tables of contents, and the materials contained therein can be located without difficulty.

(h) Subparts A and B of this part describe the functions of the staff and list the matters on which authority has been delegated to the staff. Except as provided in paragraph (g) of this section, all general instructions to the staff and limitations upon its authority are set forth in those subparts. As part of the Commission's rules and regulations, the provisions of these subparts are indexed in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations. Instructions to the staff in particular matters or cases are privileged and are not published or made available for public inspection.

(i) To the extent required to prevent a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, the Commission may delete identifying details when it makes available or publishes any document described in this section. The justification for any such deletion will be fully explained in a preamble to the document.

[32 FR 10573, July 19, 1967, as amended at 40 FR 17255, Apr. 18, 1975; 50 FR 27953, July 9, 1985; 51 FR 7444, Mar. 4, 1986; 51 FR 45889, Dec. 23, 1986; 61 FR 8477, Mar. 5, 1996; 64 FR 60723, Nov. 8, 1999]