public-service · eCFR corrections record
Is There an Official Record When the eCFR Is Wrong?
Yes: OFR keeps a dated Corrections page for its own eCFR errors, separate from agency-issued final rule corrections.
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Updated: Sources: 2
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What matters now
- OFR logs its own eCFR processing errors in a dated Corrections table with an Error Occurred date, an Error Corrected date, and a Federal Register citation.
- OFR calls the Corrections page the definitive list of corrections, not any on-page notice.
- OFR adds an on-page notice near an affected regulation only where possible, so a missing notice does not mean no correction exists.
- Errors an issuing agency makes in its own regulatory text are not listed on the Corrections page at all.
- An agency fixes its own drafting error by publishing a final rule correction or technical amendment in the Federal Register.
Yes. When the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) makes a mistake while transcribing an amendment into the electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR), that error gets logged in a dedicated, dated Corrections table — separate from the process an issuing agency uses to fix a mistake in its own regulatory text.
This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.
Key points
- OFR keeps a standing Corrections page that records its own eCFR processing errors, each with an “Error Occurred” date, an “Error Corrected” date, and the Federal Register citation that fixed it.
- OFR itself describes this page as the authoritative source: “consult the Corrections page for the definitive list of corrections” (ecfr.gov/reader-aids/understanding-the-ecfr/how-is-ecfr-corrected).
- OFR sometimes adds an on-page notice next to the affected regulation, but only “where possible” — a section without a visible notice is not proof it was never corrected.
- An issuing agency’s own drafting errors are handled through a different channel entirely: a “final rule correction” or “technical amendment” published in the Federal Register, not an entry in OFR’s Corrections table.
What the Corrections page tracks
OFR maintains a table of the errors it made while processing amendments into the eCFR. As OFR explains it, “The eCFR Corrections page … lists editorial errors OFR made in processing eCFR amendments” (ecfr.gov/reader-aids/understanding-the-ecfr/how-is-ecfr-corrected).
The table itself is structured with five columns: “Title/Section | Corrective Action | Error Occurred | Error Corrected | Source” (ecfr.gov/corrections).
A sample row from that table shows the format in practice: “8 CFR 1.2 | Definition added | 8/11/2026 | 8/31/2026 | 91 FR 51971” (ecfr.gov/corrections). That row states, for that one entry, which section was affected, what corrective action was taken, the date the error began, the date it was fixed, and the Federal Register citation documenting the fix.
Authority-record selection
OFR does try to flag affected sections directly on the eCFR page where a reader would encounter them. But that inline flag is not guaranteed: “Where possible we also add a notification to the affected content to indicate when a correction was needed” (ecfr.gov/reader-aids/understanding-the-ecfr/how-is-ecfr-corrected).
Because that on-page flag can’t always be added, OFR points readers back to the master table instead: “Due to the nature of corrections this is not always possible and users should consult the Corrections page for the definitive list of corrections” (ecfr.gov/reader-aids/understanding-the-ecfr/how-is-ecfr-corrected). In other words, the Corrections page — not the presence or absence of a note on any given section — is the record to check.
Agency-error treatment
The Corrections page only covers mistakes OFR itself introduced while processing an agency’s amendment into the eCFR. It does not cover a mistake the issuing agency made in the regulatory text it submitted in the first place: “Errors made by issuing agencies are not reflected in the Corrections Compilation table” (ecfr.gov/reader-aids/understanding-the-ecfr/how-is-ecfr-corrected).
Instead, an agency corrects its own drafting error the same way it issued the original rule — by publishing a new document in the Federal Register. As OFR describes it, “Agency correction documents are generally called ‘final rule corrections’ or ‘technical amendments’” (ecfr.gov/reader-aids/understanding-the-ecfr/how-is-ecfr-corrected). That document, not an OFR Corrections table entry, is the official record of an agency’s own fix.
What this article doesn’t answer
This article describes the existence and structure of these two separate correction records — it does not check whether any particular eCFR section you might be viewing right now carries a visible on-page notice, or whether that section is currently subject to an open OFR correction. Because OFR adds an inline notice only “where possible,” a section with no visible notice on it isn’t evidence that the section was never listed as erroneous — the Corrections page is the record to check directly. Likewise, this article does not address how quickly any given error gets fixed, or offer any assurance that every processing error OFR makes eventually appears in the Corrections table.
Source links
https://www.ecfr.gov/corrections https://www.ecfr.gov/reader-aids/understanding-the-ecfr/how-is-ecfr-corrected