Notice of proposed rulemaking
An agency's formal proposal of a new rule, published for public comment before anything becomes binding.
A notice of proposed rulemaking, usually shortened to NPRM, is the stage at which an agency says what it intends to require and invites the public to argue with it. It is published in the Federal Register with a comment period attached, commonly 30 to 60 days.
The distinction that trips people up is that an NPRM binds nobody. Nothing in it is enforceable, the text can change substantially before it is finished, and some proposals are abandoned entirely. Reading a proposal as though it were settled is the single most common error in coverage of federal regulation.
What the proposal does establish is the record. Comments filed during the period become part of the docket the agency must respond to when it issues the final rule, and that response is often where the real substance of a regulation is decided.
What the federal government did, once a day.
One email each weekday: the rules, filings, votes and Fed decisions that actually changed something, each one linked to the document it came from.