Government Documents

Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government, a service of the Government Publishing Office (GPO), is designed to inform students, parents, and educators about the Federal Government, which issues the publications and information products disseminated by the GPO’s Federal Depository Library Program. It is our hope that Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government fulfills that role. The inspiration for the Ben character comes from Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), who, like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, was one of the most important individuals in early colonial and United States history. As a young boy, Ben worked as an apprentice in a print shop and later went on to draft some of the Nation’s most significant documents. Although he lived before GPO’s founding, his legacy of publishing information lives on in what we do today.

CareerOneStop is the flagship career, training, and job search website for the U.S. Department of Labor. Your source for career exploration, training & jobs Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. A proud partner of the American job center network. The website serves job seekers, businesses, students, and career advisors with a variety of free online tools, information and resources.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) provides information on what workers do; the work environment; education, training, and other qualifications; pay; the job outlook; information on state and area data; similar occupations; and sources of additional information, for 324 occupational profiles, covering about 4 out of 5 jobs in the economy.

The OOH is broken up into clusters of similar occupations. In order to find an occupation, browse the occupation groups of interest on the left-hand side of the homepage, or use the A–Z Index if you know the specific occupation. You may search for occupations by using the selector drop-down menus on the OOH homepage. Select by pay range, entry-level education, on-the-job training, projected number of new jobs, or projected growth rate. If you know the specific occupation you are interested in, you may enter a job title into the “Search Handbook” box on the top right-hand side of the homepage. In addition, you may browse by clicking any of the four links titled “highest paying,” “fastest growing (projected),” “most new jobs (projected),” and “field of degree.”

Although hundreds of occupations are covered in detail in the OOH, BLS publishes information on additional occupations for which the required education, training, median wages, and employment projections are prepared but detailed occupational information is not developed.

The O*NET Program is the nation's primary source of occupational information. Valid data are essential to understanding the rapidly changing nature of work and how it impacts the workforce and U.S. economy. From this information, applications are developed to facilitate the development and maintenance of a skilled workforce.
Central to the project is the O*NET database, containing hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors on almost 1,000 occupations covering the entire U.S. economy. The database, which is available to the public at no cost, is continually updated from input by a broad range of workers in each occupation.

O*NET information is used by millions of individuals every year, including those taking advantage of O*NET Online, My Next Move, and other publicly and privately developed applications. The data have proven vital in helping people find the training and jobs they need, and employers the skilled workers necessary to be competitive in the marketplace.

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is developed under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA) through a grant to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

About the Compilation of Presidential Documents

The Compilation of Presidential Documents collection consists of the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents which are the official publications of materials released by the White House Press Secretary. The Compilation of Presidential Documents is published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China was created by Congress in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, and to submit an annual report to the President and the Congress. The Commission consists of nine Senators, nine Members of the House of Representatives, and five senior Administration officials appointed by the President.

U. S. Reports

The opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States are published officially in a set of case books called the United States Reports. See 28 U. S. C. §411.

***Caution***- Only the printed bound volumes of the U. S. Reports contain the final, official opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States. In case of discrepancies between a bound volume and the materials included here—or any other version of the same materials, whether print or electronic, official or unofficial—the printed bound volume controls.

Bound Volumes: The bound volumes of the U. S. Reports are the final generation of the Court’s opinions. See Information About Opinions. The bound volumes of the U. S. Reports collected here contain the full text, from cover through index, of volumes 502 et seq., including all of the opinions, orders, and other materials issued for the Court’s 1991 Term and subsequent years. Additional volumes will be posted here after they are published.

Preliminary Prints: Each bound volume of the U. S. Reports is preceded by “preliminary prints” which are brown, soft-cover “advance pamphlets” that contain the same materials and features of the U. S. Reports. See Information About Opinions. The contents of two or three preliminary prints will eventually be combined into a single bound volume. Thus, the title of each preliminary print includes a part number, e.g., Preliminary Print, Volume 577, Part 1. Prior to publication, all of the materials that go into a preliminary print undergo an extensive editing and indexing process, and permanent page numbers are assigned that will carry over into the bound volume.

For over eight decades, The United States Government Manual has been the "official handbook" of the Federal Government. This New Deal-era publication was published initially as a loose-leaf notebook, its pages held in place by three metal rings. The Government Manual is a regularly updated special edition of the Federal Register. Its contents include leadership tables and descriptions of agency activities and programs of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of Government, as well as activities and programs of quasi-official agencies and international organizations in which the United States participates as a member.

The 2022 Government Manual also has Sources of Information sections covering a host of topics and containing links to online resources.

Issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Budget of the United States Government is a collection of documents that contains the budget message of the President, information about the President's budget proposals for a given fiscal year, and other budgetary publications that have been issued throughout the fiscal year. Other related and supporting budget publications are included, which may vary from year to year.

GPO has signed and certified the PDF files to assure users that the online documents are official and authentic.

The Social Security Handbook is no longer available in paper format; it is only available online.

The Social Security Handbook includes the provisions of the Social Security Act (the Act), regulations issued under the Act, and precedential case decisions (rulings). It is one of numerous publications about the Social Security programs. It is a readable, easy to understand resource for the very complex Social Security programs and services.

The Social Security programs are so complex it is impossible to include information about every topic. However, we have included what we believe is the most common and helpful information. In case of a conflict between the contents of the Handbook and the Act, Regulations, and Rulings, the latter take precedence.

The CGP is the finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive information for historical and current publications as well as direct links to the full document, when available. Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general keywords, or click on "Advanced Search" for more options.

Available from April 1995 forward, this monthly publication is prepared by the Council of Economic Advisers for the Joint Economic Committee. It provides economic information on gross domestic product, income, employment, production, business activity, prices, money, credit, security markets, Federal finance, and international statistics.

This monthly publication is prepared by the Council of Economic Advisers for the Joint Economic Committee. It provides economic information on gross domestic product, income, employment, production, business activity, prices, money, credit, security markets, Federal finance, and international statistics.
Economic Indicators back to 1948 are made available through FRASER , the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research. FRASER is provided through a partnership between GPO and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER is not an official version of Economic Indicators and GPO can not guarantee the authenticity or completeness of the data.

The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), began in 1957 in response to a recommendation of the National Historical Publications Commission.

Noting the lack of uniform compilations of messages and papers of the Presidents before this time, the Commission recommended the establishment of an official series in which Presidential writings, addresses, and remarks of a public nature could be made available.

Volumes of the Public Papers of the Presidents from 1929 (Herbert Hoover) to 1991 (George H.W. Bush) published by NARA are made available as digital formats through GPO digitization efforts. Publications covering the John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush presidencies are available in multi-book volumes. The Public Papers of the President were not published by the National Archives for the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency; these volumes were published by a private printer before the commencement of the official Public Papers series and are not currently available in govinfo

The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration, began in 1957 in response to a recommendation of the National Historical Publications Commission. Noting the lack of uniform compilations of messages and papers of the Presidents before this time, the Commission recommended the establishment of an official series in which Presidential writings, addresses, and remarks of a public nature could be made available.

The Economic Report of the President (ERP) is an annual report produced by the Council of Economic Advisers. An important vehicle for presenting the Administration’s domestic and international economic policies, it provides an overview of the nation’s economic progress with text and extensive data appendices.