Research Guides: Government Information: Executive Branch

Executive Branch Documents

These resources will help you to access documents related to the presidency and the executive branch. Documents include executive orders, public papers of the presidents, weekly and daily compilations of presidential documents, and more.

GovInfo
Gofinfo is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. Govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
HeinOnline
HeinOnline is an online database containing more than 186 million pages and 287,000 titles of historical and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. In addition to its vast collection of academic journals, HeinOnline contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, and entire databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, foreign relations, U.S. Presidents, and much more.
American Presidency Project Documents Page
The American Presidency Project, non-profit and non-partisan, is the source of presidential documents on the internet. They are hosted at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This website provides access to Messages and Papers of the Presidents (1789-1929), Public Papers of the Presidents (since 1929), Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1977-2009), Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents (post-2009).
Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders
The Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders is an editorial codification (the action or process of arranging laws or rules according to a system or plan) prepared by the Office of the Federal Register and is not intended to be used as a definitive legal authority. It is published to provide in one convenient reference source for proclamations and Executive orders with general applicability and continuing effect. This codification covers the period April 13, 1945, through January 20, 1989--a timespan encompassing the administrations of Harry S. Truman through Ronald Reagan.
Public Papers of the Presidents
The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), contains papers from Presidents Herbert Hoover through Barack Obama.