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Government Publications: Executive Branch

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Executive Branch

The White House — Current policy, press briefings, photos from the President.

Budget of the United States Government — This site includes the documents that outline and support the President's proposed budget. The Government Publishing Office maintains a page for past years budgets, from 1996 to the present. FRASER, the digital library of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis hosts budget documents beginning with 1923.

Code of Federal Regulations — The Code (CFR) brings together the rules published by executive branch agencies and departments, into a systematic whole. Each section (or title, as they are named), covers a general subject, such as Title 26: Internal Revenue, or Title 42: Public Health. Proposed rules are published in the Federal Register (below), then later compiled into the annual edition of the CFR. The Federal Register Office also maintains the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations to provide an up-to-date version of the Code. The e-CFR website claims that revisions are included within two business days. However, they include the disclaimer that the e-CFR is not the official legal edition.

Compilation of Presidential Documents — Listing of presidential remarks, addresses, bill signings and other events as they happen (1993 to the present). Prior to 2009 these compilations were published weekly. Since that time documents are compiled daily. Note that there is a time lag between the date of an event and the publication of the resulting document.

Economic Report of the President — This site includes this annual report from 1995 forward. While the first part of each report focuses on the administration's policies, the second part provides statistical tables of economic data such as gross domestic product, income, employment, business activity, the consumer price index, government finance and corporate finance. Many of the tables cover thirty years or more. The FRASER site (St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank) hosts the historical run of Economic Reports back to 1947.

Executive Orders -- from the Federal Register, this page includes Presidential executive orders from 1994 to the present. The unofficial copy of an executive order can usually be found on the Presidential Actions page of whitehouse.gov.

Federal Register — Daily record of proposed regulations and notices from the executive branch. This includes the various cabinet level departments like Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, etc., as well as executive orders from the office of the President. The Office of the Federal Register publishes a livelier, more dynamic version, often referred to as Federal Register 2.0, at FederalRegister.gov. The entire historical run of this title is now available since the Library of Congress has digitized past issues covering 1936 to 1993. The Government Publishing Office's collection now includes all of these past issues, covering from 1936 to the present.

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States — Compilation of presidential remarks, addresses, bill signings and other events (1992 to the present). The University of Michigan hosts a digital version of the historical collection, covering the administrations of Herbert Hoover and presidents from Harry Truman to the present.

United States Government Manual — is the official handbook of the federal government. This version is continuously updated, so that the information is current. The Manual provides an organizational chart of the U.S. government and for each agency, it includes a description, lists the personnel and cites the legislation that initially created the agency. For cabinet level departments, the manual includes an organizational chart for that department. For members of Congress only their name, State/Territory/District that they represent, and their room number, are given. Includes links to the House and Senate websites. The Government Publishing Office has earlier issues of the Manual back to 1995-96.

Vetoes — provides a comprehensive listing of presidential vetoes from 1789 to the present. Also has information about the veto power and procedures.

American Presidency Project — Hosted by the University of California at Santa Barbara, this site includes a very large document archive (89,000+ items), video and audio files. Advanced search and browse are also available.

CyberCemetery — The University of North Texas Libraries and the U.S. Government Publishing Office, as part of the Federal Depository Library Program, created a partnership to provide permanent public access to the Web sites and publications of defunct U.S. government agencies and commissions. This collection was named the "CyberCemetery" by early users of the site.

US Government Agencies

USA.gov : A-Z Agencies — US Government pages alphabetic listing, includes many state-level government agencies.

U.S. Government Manual — directory of all three branches of the federal government, with brief explanations of agencies, legislation that established them and organization charts. Includes contact information.

Contact Government — USA.gov provides a central page for contacting the President, Vice President, U.S. Senators and Representatives, State Governors, State Legislators, and includes a directory to contacts for federal government agencies.