Legal Research Process

The Texas Administrative Procedure Act requires all administrative rules be compiled and indexed. The Texas Administrative Code (TAC) is a compilation of state agency regulations by agency/subject, after their initial publication in the Texas Register. The TAC is a subject matter arrangement of the administrative rules of the state. It contains 16 titles in non-sequential order. It has the final text of the rules of each agency. Note, it may not contain emergency rules, so be sure to check the Texas Register as well.

The TAC was first published in 1979, and it has been published once a year since 1994. For more information, see the Texas Office of Attorney General's annual Administrative Law Handbook, which provides a helpful overview of the Texas regulatory process. 

One should consult the TAC after surveying secondary sources, statutes, and the CFR, particularly if the secondary sources and Texas statutes are unclear regarding Texas regulations.

Electronic Availability 

• The Secretary of State is required to make the full text available to the public on their website 
  • There are two formats available:
    • The TAC Viewer allows you to view and browse the complete TAC in effect today. This format is arranged by title, part, and chapter. 
    • The searchable database allows you to view and search individual sections of the TAC. Using the searchable database is recommended because it allows you to link out to the Texas Register.
• Lexis (login required) 
  • Includes archived versions of the code. You can find the TAC from the homepage under State content by selecting "Texas" and then "TX - Texas Administrative Code." 
  • There is no indication/flag for proposed rules or emergency rules. Be sure to check the Texas Register. Be sure to check the currency as it may be out-of-date. 
• Westlaw (login required)  
  • Includes current versions and includes Texas Historical Regulations (2002 - 2020). You can find the current TAC from the homepage by selecting "Regulations" and then "Texas."
  • There are flags to indicate proposed rules. Additional text will indicate an emergency rule in place. Be sure to check the Texas Register. Be sure to check the currency as it may be out-of-date. 
• Bloomberg (login required) 
  • Includes current version of the code. There is no indication for proposed rules. Be sure to check the Texas Register. Be sure to check the currency as it may be out-of-date. 
• Agency websites may also post relevant regulations.
  • Ex: Texas Railroad Commission's Current Rules 

Print Availability 

• The Texas Administrative Code is available in print at Tarlton on the 2nd floor. 

Organization

The hierarchy and terminology of the TAC's organization varies slightly from the CFR:

Title  >  Part  >  Chapter  >  Subchapter  >  Section/Rule

For example:

Title 7. Banking and Securities
  Part 5. Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner
    Chapter 86. Retail Creditors
      Subchapter A. Registration of Retail Creditors
        § 86.101. Consumer Notifications

Only the title, chapter, and section/rule are referenced in a citation: 7 Tex. Admin. Code § 86.101. (For purposes of searching the TAC on the Secretary of State's website with different fields, 101 alone would be considered the "rule.") If working from a particular citation, it is difficult to browse the TAC on the Secretary of State's website without knowing the part number.

Similar to the CFR, regulations laid out in the TAC provide Tex. Reg. citations that originally published the final rule. For instance, with the above example, its "Source Note" states: "The provisions of this §86.101 adopted to be effective November 9, 2006, 31 TexReg 9017." (Unlike the CFR, there is not a consistent provision of an authority note as well for finding the enabling statute; one has to rely on TexReg instead.) Look for these Tex. Reg. citations if you wish to compile a regulatory history. For assistance in compiling regulatory history, see this guide's page on How to Compile TX Regulatory History. 

Ways to Research Regulations 

There are several ways to search the TAC.

• If you have already narrowed your search down to a specific agency, browsing the TAC's table of contents is one option, whether online or in print. 
• Using an index: For the TAC, an index is only available in print. The print version of the TAC includes an annually revised index volume and each individual title is also accompanied by its own index.
• Using a citator:
  • Both the print and online versions of the Texas statutory code from Lexis and Westlaw provide citations to the TAC related to a particular statutory section. You can look at both the annotations following the statutory text for "Administrative Code References," as well as Shepard's and KeyCite for possibly even more results. 
  • There may be a delay in the annotated statute picking up a new TAC citation.
  • (The TAC does not have a state level equivalent to CFR's Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules.)
• Keyword searching: The Texas Secretary of State's version is also searchable, and offers a help page. As usual, both Lexis and Westlaw have the additional options of natural language and terms and connectors searching. These searching techniques can be helpful, but since many subjects are touched upon in numerous places, use caution that you do not wind up in a completely wrong title.
  • The TAC Viewer allows you to view and browse the complete TAC in effect today. This format is arranged by title, part, and chapter. 
  • The searchable database allows you to view and search individual sections of the TAC. Using the searchable database is recommended because it allows you to link out to the Texas Register. 

Currency

An updated print edition is published at the beginning of a calendar year. Thus, a 2021 edition of TAC is current as of Dec. 31, 2020. According to the OAG's Texas Administrative Law Handbook, the TAC as published on the Secretary of State website is current each day. 

The Secretary of State-maintained website is generally the best place to research Texas regulations. This version is updated regularly and is easily searchable. Lexis and Westlaw have the benefit of being annotated. However it can be difficult to navigate to TAC on Lexis and Westlaw. (Ex: Westlaw database is named "Texas Regulations" rather than TAC.) And the citator flags of new proposed and emergency regulations from the Texas Register aren't kept up sufficiently up to date. I.e., not putting up flags as soon as proposed and not taking down flags as soon needed. Westlaw does provide a "Compare Versions" feature--click button top right of individual reg--with coverage start date of 1/1/2018.

The print version is another good resource because of its index; however, the index is only updated annually.