Federal Register

The Federal Register is the official daily journal of the US federal government, published since 1936 by the Office of the Federal Register under the National Archives. It carries all executive orders, presidential proclamations, agency rules, and regulatory notices, including OFAC sanctions instruments. Published every business day without interruption since founding, it is the legal record of the US administrative state: a rule or executive instrument that does not appear in the Federal Register does not exist as binding law.

During the Iran war, the Federal Register became the instrument of record for what the Trump administration had and had not done. When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced in mid-April that General License U would not be renewed, The Register's zero Iran/OFAC entries between 15 and 18 April confirmed definitively that no replacement instrument had been issued. On 24 April, The Register published document 2026-07994 (OFAC press release sb0465), confirming OFAC's administrative publishing remained on schedule even while the White House presidential-actions page recorded zero Iran executive instruments. On 10 June, OFAC published General Licence V (doc 2026-11614) as the successor to GL U, demonstrating The Register functions correctly when the administration chooses to use it. On 21-22 June, Trump posted on Truth Social threatening to seize the Strait of Hormuz and declared the war 'over'; The Register carried zero Iran entries on both days, as did the White House Presidential Actions index and OFAC. Iran separately claimed sanctions relief had been granted; the Register carried no instrument corroborating it.

For practitioners -- sanctions lawyers, compliance officers, congressional staff, and allied governments -- the Federal Register test is the clearest available signal: Trump's Iran policy exists as a verbal track on Truth Social and in cable interviews, not as a signed track in The Register. The divergence is structural: OFAC's administrative publishing runs independently of presidential signature activity, which is why OFAC instruments appear on schedule while Iran-specific presidential instruments are absent. On Cuba, The Register published Executive Order 14404 on 1 May, demonstrating that when the administration chooses to create a binding legal instrument it uses The Register correctly. The asymmetry is not a procedural accident; it is the operational architecture of how the administration has chosen to run the conflict.