Administrative Law Research: Presidential & Executive Branch Materials

The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States both reproduce and compile Presidential Documents. 

The Weekly Compilation has been issued by the Office of the Federal Register every Monday since 1965. It includes proclamations, executive orders, signing statements, veto messages, communications made by the president to Congress, and other materials released by the White House during the previous week. Each issue contains a table of contents and has a quarterly and annual index schedule. 

Locating the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents:        

	Print copies of the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents are available at the UB Law Library
	FDsys houses the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents which is accessible, in authenticated format, in .PDF format from 1992.
	HeinOnline's  Federal Register Collection also houses the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents in .PDF format from 1965. HeinOnline also houses the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents from 2009 to the present.
	The Westlaw WCPD database  has full text copies of the Weekly Compilation since 1995.

Locating the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States:

The Public Papers included everything contained in the Weekly Compilation since 1977. In 1989 the Public Papers stopped reproducing the full-text of proclamations and executive orders. It now lists them and provides citations to the Federal Register. 

	FDsys contains the full text of the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States in .PDF format from 1991.
	The full text of the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States since 1979, is available in the LexisNexis PRESDC database.
	The American Presidency Project houses the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States in full text from 1929-present.
	LLMC Digital houses the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States from 1929 to 2001.
	HeinOnline's U.S. Presidential Library also has the complete collection of the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States.
	University of Michigan's Federal Digital Library also houses the Public Papers of the President's of the United States from 1929.

Choosing a Source:

According to the Bluebook, documents appearing in both publications should be cited to the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States.

Presidential Proclamations are generally considered to be ceremonial or celebratory and are directed at the entire nation. Executive Orders are considered to be directives used by the president to govern the activities of government officials and agencies. 

Proclamations and Executive Orders appear in both print and electronic format in various locations. 

	The Federal Register publishes copies of all Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders. See the Federal Register page for more information on accessing the Federal Register.
	The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents reprints Presidential Proclomations and Executive Orders of the preceding week. It is available from GPO FdSys.
	Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations are also produced in Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations and the compilation volumes of Title 3. These Title 3 compilations are considered to be permanent reference sources.
	The United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN), Advance sheets also reprint Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders. These documents may also be available in the ProQuest library and from HeinOnline

Also see the Executive Order Disposition Tables from the National Archives and Records Administration. Contains modern orders, Federal Register citations and links to Executive orders that were amended.