Sec. 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 Secs. 0.453 
and 0.455.
    (b) Texts adopted by the Commission or a member of its staff on 
delegated authority and made available to the public through the Office 
of Congressional and Public Affairs 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 
Sec. 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 FCC Dockets Branch (Room 230), 1919 
M Street, NW., Washington, DC, or as otherwise specified in the 
rulemaking document published in the Federal Register. 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

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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) There are two Commission staff manuals, the FCC Administrative 
Manual and the CIB Manual. 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. Portions of the CIB Manual which pertain to administrative 
matters are available for inspection in the Compliance and Information 
Bureau. Portions of the CIB Manual which pertain to enforcement matters 
are not available for inspection. The Manuals are not indexed but are 
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]