“Alphabet Soup” Regulations

At both the federal and Washington State level, there are two basic sets of requirements – laws and regulations.

Laws (or statutes) are those passed by either Congress or the State Legislature and then signed into law by either the President or Governor. Regulations are adopted by administrative agencies or departments of the government to implement the laws and provide more details about the intent of the laws.

And, of course, the laws and regulations, all have acronyms - USC, CRF, RCW, WAC.

The following chart describes what they are and where they may be located on the web.

Laws

Federal

USC – United States Code

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html

State

RCW – Revised Code of Washington

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/

Regulations

Federal

CFR – Code of Federal Regulations

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&tpl=%2Findex.tpl

State

WAC – Washington Administrative Code

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/