FDsys: Free Federal Resources

With legal employers looking for cost-efficiency in their new employees, an official government website with free documents in PDF is one you'll want to bookmark and remember.  FDsys, the U.S. Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System, provides easy access to Congressional bills, hearings, and reports, the U.S. Code, the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations, as well as Presidential documents and other materials.  Some of the materials on FDsys are not available on HeinOnline, and all of them are accessible to anyone with internet access. Be sure to note the date coverage for each of the resources, which varies.

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It's All Presidential

From the Presidential Inauguration to executive orders on gun control and Cabinet appointments, the President and presidential documents have been much in the news lately.  One of the best overall sources combining various types of presidential documents, election data, and an audio/visual archive, is the American Presidency Project.  Established in 1999 as a collaboration between professors John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters at the University of California, Santa Barbara, this free internet resource now provides searchable access to over 103,000 documents, including the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Washington - Taft (1789-1913); the Public Papers of the Presidents from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush; and presidential documents from the first term of Barack Obama. 

For an official source of presidential documents in PDF, try the Government Printing Office's website, FDsys. Here you'll find easy access to the Compilation of Presidential Documents Collection, with supplementary materials such as nominations and press releases. Coverage is from 1993 to the current week. For access on the go, GPO Mobile's Presidential Documents app provides mobile access to documents released by the White House Press Secretary beginning in 2009, including searchable executive orders, speeches, statements, approved acts, nominations, and press releases.  The app works with any smart phone at http://m.gpo.gov/dcpd.

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GAO Reports

If you are looking for reliable sources for your research papers, don't overlook GAO reports. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress, investigating how the federal government spends its money and working to increase government performance and accountability. The GAO issues about 800 reports each year, either at the request of Congress or as required by federal laws. In the past month alone, the GAO released law-related reports on topics ranging from consumer product safety and health care pricing to the Federal Reserve System's assistance to AIG (American International Group, Inc.) during the recent financial crisis. Available in PDF on the agency's web site, GAO reports are searchable by keyword or report number, and can be browsed under the "Reports and Testimonies" tab by topic and date.

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U.S. Government response to Bit.Libya

Did you know that bit.ly is a Libyan domain name? Because of this, the U.S. government is now looking smart for moving its short URLs to go.usa.gov.

[hat tip: 3 Geeks and a Law Blog]


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GovDocs

Explore GovDocs is a directory of government documents put together by the University of Michigan Government Documents Center. You can search or you can browse topics, including federal government, the census and statistics.


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