When all clearances have been obtained, the proposed publication item is ready for publishing in the IRB.

The submission to the Bulletin Unit includes the following:

Prior to submitting the package to the Bulletin Unit for publication, the drafting attorney will prepare the report to GAO and Congress. See CCDM 32.2.8.2.

The drafting attorney is also responsible for removing all "hidden" codes from the word processing files of the document submitted to the Bulletin Unit to prevent readers from viewing prior changes to the document.

Instructions for removing hidden codes.

After removing any hidden codes, the drafting attorney prepares the package for submission to the Bulletin Unit. The copies of the publication submitted to the Bulletin Unit must not contain the control (CASE-MIS) number, the draft date, or printer’s footnotes. When using the eWord Chief Counsel MACROs, the control number and draft date will be deleted from the final version of the publication item when the drafting attorney submits the publication item to Counsel’s content management system (Documentum).

Instructions for removing control number and draft date. Once the publication item is ready to be submitted to the Bulletin Unit, the drafting attorney should:

The assigned reviewer in the Associate Office is responsible for ensuring that the final proposed publication reflects the changes recommended at the various levels of review and that the submission package is complete (including the index and highlight entries on Form 12972). Once the assigned reviewer approves, the reviewer will sign Form 12971. If the index or highlight entries on Form 12972 are not completed, the Bulletin Unit will return the form to the drafting attorney to complete those sections of the form.

The Associate office forwards the submission package to the Bulletin Unit (Room 6516).

Manuscripts for the IRB must be prepared using Microsoft Word, the standard word processing application for all of the Office of Chief Counsel. The Bulletin Unit is authorized to return any manuscript to the drafting attorney if the material does not meet the standards of acceptability for submission to the printer.

When the Associate office forwards the submission package to the Bulletin Unit (or to Media Relations for an early drop, see CCDM 32.2.8.4.2), the Associate office should inform the following addresses by email of the pending publication:

The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA) added chapter 8 to title 5, United States Code (Congressional Review Act). The Congressional Review Act (CRA) provides that no final rule can become effective until the issuing agency submits a report containing certain information to the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Comptroller General of the GAO.

The Service meets its Congressional Review Act notice requirement by submitting a Submission of Federal Rules Under the Congressional Review Act Form (see Exhibit 32.2.8-1 for a sample CRA form and Exhibit 32.2.8-2 for instructions for completing the CRA form), the rule, and other attachments, to Congressional and GAO representatives. The drafting attorney must complete the CRA form. The Publications and Regulations Branch arranges delivery of CRA forms, with attachments, to the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Comptroller General of the GAO within one business day of receipt.

A rule is defined by SBREFA as the whole or a part of an agency statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency. SBREFA provides specifically that the following are not rules for purposes of the congressional review procedures:

Revenue rulings, revenue procedures, notices, and announcements that are rules under the SBREFA must be submitted for congressional review before they can become effective. Whether a revenue ruling, revenue procedure, notice, or announcement is considered a rule subject to reporting is determined on a case-by-case basis. Ministerial revenue rulings and revenue procedures; notices and announcements relating to error corrections, personnel matters, or proposed rules; and press releases generally will not be considered rules under SBREFA.

The determination that a revenue ruling, revenue procedure, notice, or announcement is or is not a rule under the SBREFA must be documented in the legal file.

The drafting attorney must prepare the following and deliver them to the Publications and Regulations Branch (CC:PA:LPD:PR), room 5203, before 11 a.m. on the earliest of the date that the rule is released to the tax services, published in the IRB, or otherwise made available to the public. Four CRA reports, each report consisting of the following documents in the order listed (from top to bottom):

These four CRA reports are for:

For the first three listed recipients of the CRA reports, type the recipient’s name and title in the upper right corner of the CRA form for that recipient.

Five additional copies of the completed CRA form (without the concise summary or a copy of the rule). Type each recipient’s name and title in the upper right corner of each of these five CRA forms. These five recipients (courtesy copy recipients) receive only a copy of the CRA form, without the rule or concise summary. These five CRA forms are for:

Each day, the Publications and Regulations Branch prepares an "Acknowledgment of Receipt" form (original and two copies), listing the documents being submitted under the CRA, for each of the following: (1) President, United States Senate, and (2) Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives. By 2:00 p.m. the Publications and Regulations Branch delivers the Acknowledgments of Receipt (original and one copy) and the listed CRA reports (Acknowledgment of Receipt packages) for the President, U.S. Senate, and the Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives, to the IRS Legislative Affairs office. Personnel in the IRS Legislative Affairs office deliver the CRA reports to those Congressional offices (usually within one business day) and get a representative of each of those Congressional offices to sign the Acknowledgment of Receipt forms. IRS Legislative Affairs returns the signed Acknowledgment of Receipt forms to the Publications and Regulations Branch box in the Office of IRS Legislative Affairs.

The Publications and Regulations Branch maintains records of all CRA submissions and signed Acknowledgment of Receipt forms, and follows up with the IRS Legislative Affairs office on any outstanding Acknowledgment of Receipt forms.

The Publications and Regulations Branch sends a CRA package to the General Counsel, GAO.

The Publications and Regulations Branch faxes the CRA forms to the offices of the five courtesy copy recipients and verifies that each fax confirmation shows that the submission was properly transmitted in its entirety.

The Publications and Regulations Branch sends both signed Acknowledgment of Receipt forms (signed by the offices of the President, United States Senate, and the Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives), to the drafting attorney to retain in the publication’s background file. If an Acknowledgment of Receipt form lists more than one CRA report, the Publications and Regulations Branch sends the original signed form to the drafting attorney for the first listed document and a copy of the signed form to the drafting attorney for each other CRA report listed on the form. The Publications and Regulations Branch retains a copy of each signed Acknowledgment of Receipt form and a copy of each related CRA report. The Publications and Regulations Branch also sends the Acknowledgement of Receipt form signed by the Office of the General Counsel, GAO to the drafting attorney for retention in the publication’s background file, and retains a copy together with the related CRA report, in the Publications and Regulations Branch files.

It is the responsibility of the drafting attorney to ensure that the Acknowledgment of Receipt forms are placed in the regulation’s legal file. If the attorney does not receive the acknowledgments within 10 days of delivering the CRA form to the Publications and Regulations Branch, the attorney should follow up with the Publications and Regulations Branch to determine status of the forms and to verify the CRA reports were submitted. It is critical that the acknowledgments are retained in the event there is any question over whether the IRS complied with the CRA.

Additional information about the CRA is available at http://www.gao.gov/legal/congressact/congress.html. For a copy of the CRA Form, see Exhibit 32.2.8-1.

The Bulletin Unit prepares the proposed publication for printing. When appropriate, the Bulletin Unit may ask the Associate office to do a proof check of the manuscript and the IRB highlights before it goes to the printer.

Publication timetable. There is a normal period of approximately 3 weeks between the time a publication is received by the Bulletin Unit and its publication in the IRB. In extraordinary circumstances, it is possible for a publication to be published in less time than the normal 3 week time period.

In almost all cases it is desirable to release a publication prior to publishing in the IRB. Accordingly, the proposed publication should be prepublished (that is, made public by or in a news release or by way of an "early drop" before it is published in the IRB). If Media Relations or higher level official feels that a news release is unnecessary, an advance copy of a publication may be provided to the commercial tax services through the Media Relations office with a notation as to which IRB it will appear in. This latter procedure is commonly referred to as a "drop" or "early drop" . See CCDM 32.2.8.4.2. In certain instances, the release of a publication through commercial tax services is not feasible, for example, when a legal effective date is tied to the date of the publication or when publication will affect market conditions. A decision to not release a publication in advance of appearing in the IRB must be approved by an Associate Chief Counsel.

General — Certain proposed publications involving only ministerial matters (such as, applicable federal interest rates and monthly bond factor amounts) may be published without referral to the Chief Counsel, Commissioner, and, in most cases, without referral to Treasury. The branch should consult the Techmis IRS/Treasury Business Plan Appendix-Ministerial Rulings report to determine whether, and to what extent, approval may be waived for a publication item.

After the review and approval of a proposed ministerial publication by the Associate Chief Counsel, the branch will prepare the publication package for submission to the Bulletin Unit for publication.

On occasion, the public is offered the opportunity to provide comments on proposed publications, usually proposed revenue rulings or proposed revenue procedures. The drafting attorney will consider any comments received during the development of the proposed publication.

When a request for comments is solicited (for example, in a notice or announcement) interested persons should be given the following information on how to submit comments:

When considering public comments, steps should be taken to identify the source and content of the comments in materials that are reviewed, when appropriate. For example, it may be appropriate to make an entry in the BIN to reflect public comments that are considered in the development of the project.

The Service has a continuing program to review its publications in order to identify and publish lists of those publications that, although not specifically revoked or superseded, are no longer determinative because:

Exhibit 32.2.8-5 provides a pattern for use in obsoleting these publications.