‘‘(4) Government has a responsibility to dis-
seminate and provide permanent public access to in-
formation in order to ensure that members of the 
public are fully aware of the activities of their gov-
ernment, to spur innovation and research, and to 
promote good government. 
‘‘(5) The sole focus of the Superintendent of 
Documents should be on implementing programs to 
ensure no-fee access to government information. 
‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this chapter to 
promote the greatest possible public access to information 
dissemination products by authorizing the Superintendent 
of Documents to— 
‘‘(1) establish a national collection of informa-
tion dissemination products and to provide no-fee, 
permanent public access to such collection through 
an online repository established and operated by the 
Director of the Government Publishing Office under 
subchapter C and through the Federal Depository 
Library Program under subchapter D; 
‘‘(2) carry out a cataloging and indexing pro-
gram for the products in such national collection; 
‘‘(3) carry out a by-law distribution program 
and an international exchange service program 
under subchapter F; and 
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‘‘(4) collaborate with offices of the Federal Gov-
ernment, Federal Depository Libraries, and library 
associations and consortia. 
‘‘§ 1702. Superintendent of Documents 
‘‘(a) APPOINTMENT.—The Director of the Govern-
ment Publishing Office shall appoint an individual to serve 
as the Superintendent of Documents, without regard to 
political affiliation and solely based on professional quali-
fications to perform the duties and responsibilities of the 
position, and who shall serve at the pleasure of the Direc-
tor of the Government Publishing Office. 
‘‘(b) DUTIES.—Under the general direction of the Di-
rector of the Government Publishing Office, the Super-
intendent of Documents shall administer the programs of 
GPO which provide no-fee public access to Federal infor-
mation dissemination products (IDPs) under this chapter. 
‘‘(c) QUALIFICATIONS.—The individual appointed as 
the Superintendent of Documents shall be an accom-
plished general manager and practitioner of library and 
information sciences, including the identification, acquisi-
tion, authentication, cataloging, dissemination, mainte-
nance, and preservation of information dissemination 
products regardless of form or format. 
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‘‘(d) COMPENSATION.—The Superintendent of Docu-
ments shall be compensated at an annual rate equal to 
level III of the Executive Schedule. 
‘‘§ 1703. Employees and facilities of Superintendent 
‘‘(a) APPOINTMENT OF EMPLOYEES; PROVISION OF 
FACILITIES.—The Director of the Government Publishing 
Office, upon the requisition of the Superintendent of Doc-
uments, shall appoint necessary assistants, furnish blanks, 
and do the printing and binding required by the Super-
intendent of Documents. The Director shall provide con-
venient office, storage, and distributing rooms for the use 
of the Superintendent of Documents. 
‘‘(b) PAY
OF EMPLOYEES
FOR NIGHT, SUNDAY, 
HOLIDAY, AND OVERTIME WORK.—Employees of the Su-
perintendent of Documents may be paid for night, Sun-
day, holiday, and overtime work at rates not in excess of 
the rates of additional pay for this work allowed other em-
ployees of the Government Publishing Office under section 
305 of this title. 
‘‘§ 1704. Coordination and consultation with Library 
of Congress 
‘‘In carrying out this chapter, the Superintendent of 
Documents shall coordinate and consult with the Librar-
ian of Congress, especially with respect to the provisions 
of this title which affect the collections of the Library of 
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Congress and the services the Library provides to Con-
gress. 
‘‘§ 1705. Coordination and consultation with other 
legislative branch officials 
‘‘In addition to the coordination and consultation re-
quired under section 1704, in carrying out this chapter, 
the Superintendent of Documents shall coordinate and 
consult with appropriate officials of the legislative branch, 
including the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the 
Secretary of the Senate, and the Librarian of Congress, 
with respect to the production and dissemination of infor-
mation dissemination products of Congress for inclusion 
in the legislative information retrieval system established 
and operated under section 209 of the Legislative Branch 
Appropriations Act, 1996 (2 U.S.C. 180). 
‘‘§ 1706. Definitions 
‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF ‘PRINTING’.— 
‘‘(1) DEFINITION.—In this chapter, the term 
‘printing’ includes and applies to the all of the proc-
esses used to capture, process, and duplicate digital 
or tangible information, including— 
‘‘(A) any formatting, composition, digitiza-
tion, platemaking, presswork, and binding or 
other finishing, or the manufacturing of related 
material; 
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‘‘(B) the equipment and software applica-
tions used in such processes; and 
‘‘(C) the end items in any tangible or dig-
ital form produced by such processes and equip-
ment for use by an end user. 
‘‘(2) REVIEW; UPDATES.—The Director of the 
Government Publishing Office shall regularly review 
the definition under this subsection to ensure that it 
is consistent with international and commercial prac-
tice, and not less frequently than every 5 years, shall 
submit recommendations to the Committee on House 
Administration of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate for updates to the definition so that it re-
flects the most current technology. 
‘‘(b) OTHER DEFINITIONS.—In this chapter, the fol-
lowing definitions apply: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘dissemination’ means the gov-
ernment-initiated distribution of information to a 
nongovernment entity, including the public. Such 
term does not include any distribution which is lim-
ited to Federal Government employees, intra- or 
inter-office use or sharing of Federal information, 
and responses to requests for agency records under 
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the Freedom of lnformation Act (section 552 of title 
5) or the Privacy Act (section 552a of title 5). 
‘‘(2) The term ‘document’ means an informa-
tion dissemination product. 
‘‘(3) The term ‘electronic information dissemi-
nation product’ means an information dissemination 
product which is created for or transmitted through 
an electronic communications system or network of 
the office in which the product originated. 
‘‘(4) The term ‘Federal information’ means in-
formation created, collected, processed, maintained, 
disseminated, disclosed, or disposed of by or for the 
Federal Government, in any medium or form. 
‘‘(5) The term ‘Federal information system’ 
means an information system used or operated by an 
office of the Federal Government or by a contractor 
of such an office or by another organization on be-
half of such an office. 
‘‘(6) The term ‘fugitive document’ means an in-
formation dissemination product which is not cata-
loged or otherwise identifiable or retrievable by an 
end user through the online repository under section 
1721 of this title. 
‘‘(7) The term ‘Government publication’ means 
information that is published as an individual docu-
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ment at Government expense, or as required by law, 
in any medium or form. 
‘‘(8) The term ‘graphic communication’ means 
electronic and traditional printing, publishing, pack-
aging, digital imaging, computer graphics, website 
development, digital photography, printable elec-
tronics, and related activities. 
‘‘(9) The term ‘information’ means any commu-
nication or representation of knowledge such as 
facts, data, or opinions in any medium or form, in-
cluding textual, numerical, graphic, cartographic, 
narrative, electronic, or audiovisual forms. 
‘‘(10) The term ‘information dissemination 
product’ or ‘IDP’ means any recorded information, 
regardless of physical form or characteristics, dis-
seminated by an office of the Federal Government, 
or contractor thereof, to the public, and including 
any recorded information incorporated by reference 
into the Code of Federal Regulations. Notwith-
standing the provisions of section 106 of title 17, it 
is not an infringement of any copyright that may 
subsist in works within an IDP to reproduce, pre-
pare derivative works of, display, perform, distribute, 
or utilize (including through text or data mining) 
IDPs under this title. 
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‘‘(11) The term ‘inter-office agreement’ means 
a written agreement entered into between two or 
more offices of the Federal Government that speci-
fies the goods to be furnished or tasks to be accom-
plished by one office (the servicing office) in support 
of the other(s) (the requesting office), including as-
sisted acquisitions as described in the Memorandum 
of the Office of Management and Budget entitled 
‘Improving the Management and Use of lnteragency 
Acquisitions’ and other cases described in part 17 of 
the Federal Acquisition Regulations. 
‘‘(12) The term ‘national collection’ means 
(subject to subchapter B) the collection of informa-
tion dissemination products produced by the Federal 
Government, and (as described in subchapter B) is 
a distributed collection accessible from the online re-
pository under subchapter C, the Federal Depository 
Libraries under subchapter D, and through agree-
ments with other entities as provided by this chap-
ter. 
‘‘(13) The term ‘personally identifiable informa-
tion’ means information that can be used to distin-
guish or trace an individual’s identity, either alone 
or when combined with other information that is 
linked or linkable to a specific individual. 
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‘‘(14) The term ‘public information’ means any 
information, regardless of form or format, that an 
office of the Federal Government discloses, dissemi-
nates, or makes available to the public. 
‘‘(15) The term ‘publication’ means informa-
tional matter which is published as an individual 
document at Federal Government expense, or as re-
quired by law. 
‘‘(16) The term ‘State’ means, except where 
otherwise provided, each of the several States, the 
District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 
Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the United States 
Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the North-
ern Mariana Islands. 
‘‘(17) The term ‘trustworthy information sys-
tem’ means an information system that is believed to 
be capable of operating within defined levels of risk 
despite the environmental disruptions, human errors, 
structural failures, and purposeful attacks that are 
expected to occur in its environment of operation. 
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‘‘SUBCHAPTER B—NATIONAL COLLECTION OF 
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION PRODUCTS 
‘‘§ 1721. National collection of information dissemina-
tion products 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF COLLECTION.—In order to 
provide permanent public access to information dissemina-
tion products that may be of public interest or educational 
value, in accordance with this subchapter, the Super-
intendent of Documents shall establish a comprehensive, 
national collection of information dissemination products 
which are determined to be appropriate for inclusion in 
the collection, and shall include all information dissemina-
tion products which have been incorporated by reference 
into the Code of Federal Regulations. 
‘‘(b) PUBLIC ACCESS TO COLLECTION.—Except as 
provided in subsection (c), the Superintendent shall pro-
vide permanent public access to all of the information dis-
semination products which are included in the national 
collection through each of the following means: 
‘‘(1) The online repository established and oper-
ated by the Director of the Government Publishing 
Office under subchapter C. 
‘‘(2) The Federal Depository Library Program 
under subchapter D. 
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‘‘(3) Methods established for access to products 
in incompatible formats, as determined under section 
1722(b)(2). 
‘‘(4) Cataloging, indexing, identification, loca-
tion, availability, and format designation services 
under section 1725. 
‘‘(c) NO PUBLIC ACCESS FOR CERTAIN PRODUCTS.— 
‘‘(1) 
PRODUCTS
DESCRIBED.—The 
Super-
intendent shall not provide public access to an infor-
mation dissemination product which is included in 
the national collection under this subchapter if any 
of the following apply: 
‘‘(A) The product is a cooperative publica-
tion which must necessarily be sold in order to 
be self-sustaining, unless the applicable official 
enters into an agreement with the Super-
intendent to make the product accessible to the 
public. 
‘‘(B) The product contains information the 
disclosure of which would constitute a clearly 
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. 
‘‘(C) Prohibiting public access to the prod-
uct is necessary to comply with relevant law. 
‘‘(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR CERTAIN PRODUCTS.— 
Paragraph (1) does not apply with respect to— 
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‘‘(A) an information dissemination product 
which an office disseminates in electronic form 
to the public at no cost; or 
‘‘(B) an information dissemination product 
consisting of a standard which has been incor-
porated by reference into the Code of Federal 
Regulations. 
‘‘(3) NOTIFICATION
BY
APPLICABLE
OFFI-
CIALS.—Each applicable official shall notify the Su-
perintendent of each instance in which an informa-
tion dissemination product is subject to paragraph 
(1). 
‘‘(d) HISTORICAL COLLECTION.—In maintaining the 
national collection under this subchapter, the Super-
intendent shall oversee the maintenance of information 
dissemination products which were created and distributed 
prior to the effective date of the FDLP Modernization Act 
of 2018. 
‘‘(e) APPLICABLE OFFICIAL DEFINED.—In this sub-
chapter, the term ‘applicable official’ with respect to an 
information dissemination product is as follows: 
‘‘(1) In the case of an IDP originating in an of-
fice of the executive branch, the head of the office 
in which the IDP originated. 
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‘‘(2) In the case of an IDP originating in an of-
fice of the legislative branch, the head of the office 
in which the IDP originated, except that— 
‘‘(A) if the IDP originated in an office of 
the House of Representatives, the term ‘appli-
cable official’ is the Clerk of the House of Rep-
resentatives; and 
‘‘(B) if the IDP originated in the Senate, 
the term ‘applicable official’ is the Secretary of 
the Senate. 
‘‘(3) In the case of an IDP originating in the 
judicial branch, the Director of the Administrative 
Office of the United States Courts or the Clerk of 
the United States Supreme Court (as the case may 
be). 
‘‘§ 1722. Responsibility of offices of Government to 
furnish products to Superintendent of 
Documents 
‘‘(a) REQUIREMENT TO FURNISH PRODUCTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—If an office of the Federal 
Government produces or procures an information 
dissemination product, regardless of form or format, 
the applicable official shall furnish the product to 
the Superintendent of Documents for inclusion in 
the national collection established and maintained 
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under this subchapter at the applicable price de-
scribed in paragraph (2), not later than the date on 
which the product is made available to the public. 
‘‘(2) APPLICABLE PRICE DESCRIBED.—In para-
graph (1), the ‘applicable price’ with respect to an 
information dissemination product is— 
‘‘(A) in the case of a product in electronic 
form which the office involved disseminates to 
the public at no cost, $0; or 
‘‘(B) in the case of any other product, such 
price as may be appropriate, but not to exceed 
the actual cost to the office involved of pro-
ducing an additional copy of the product. 
‘‘(b) FORM AND FORMAT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In furnishing an informa-
tion dissemination product to the Superintendent of 
Documents under this subchapter, the applicable of-
ficial shall deposit with and notify the Super-
intendent of digital or tangible (as applicable) 
versions of such IDP, regardless of the form or for-
mat of the product, in such manner as will enable 
the Superintendent to perform cataloging, indexing, 
identification, location, availability, and format des-
ignation services with respect to the IDP under sec-
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tion 1725 and authentication with respect to the 
IDP under section 1722. 
‘‘(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR INCOMPATIBLE FOR-
MATS.— 
‘‘(A) PROVIDING LOCATION AND ACCESS.— 
If the form or format of an IDP is not compat-
ible with the electronic systems of the Govern-
ment Publishing Office, and it is not practicable 
to make the form or format of the IDP compat-
ible with such systems, the applicable official 
shall meet the requirements of this section by 
providing the Superintendent with information 
on where the content of the IDP is held and 
how the Superintendent may access the content, 
and by providing access to and preserving the 
content of the IDP. 
‘‘(B) CATALOGING, PUBLIC ACCESS, AND 
PRESERVATION.—The Superintendent, in con-
sultation with the applicable official, shall deter-
mine the best method to catalog, provide public 
access to (including through the Federal Depos-
itory Library Program under subchapter D), 
and preserve an IDP which is subject to sub-
paragraph (A). 
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‘‘(c) NOTIFICATIONS REGARDING CHANGES IN PRO-
DUCTION OR PROCUREMENT OF PRODUCTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The applicable official shall 
immediately notify the Superintendent of the intent 
of an office to produce or procure, substantially 
modify, or terminate the production of an informa-
tion dissemination product, regardless of form or 
format, in order to enable the Superintendent to 
continue to provide public access to the product 
under this chapter, including access through the 
Federal Depository Library Program under sub-
chapter D at the applicable price described in sub-
section (a)(2). Nothing in this paragraph shall be 
construed to affect the application of section 3506 of 
this title to any office or applicable official. 
‘‘(2) PUBLIC NOTICE.—The Superintendent of 
Documents shall publish in the Federal Register, 
and provide timely notice to the public and the Fed-
eral Depository Libraries under subchapter D, of no-
tifications received under paragraph (1). In the case 
of notifications that an office intends to terminate 
the production of an information dissemination 
product, eliminate the production or availability in 
tangible form of an information dissemination prod-
uct, or otherwise limit the provision of public access 
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to an information dissemination product to only elec-
tronic means, the Superintendent of Documents 
shall provide such notice not later than 10 days 
after receiving the notification. 
‘‘(3) RESTRICTIONS ON AUTHORITY TO ELIMI-
NATE
PRINTED
COPIES
OF
PRODUCTS.—An office 
may not terminate the production of an information 
dissemination product, eliminate the production or 
availability in tangible form of an information dis-
semination product, or otherwise limit the provision 
of public access to such product to only electronic 
means, until the expiration of the 70-day period 
which begins on the date the head of the office noti-
fies the Superintendent of Documents of the intent 
to terminate such production, eliminate such produc-
tion or availability in tangible form, or limit such ac-
cess to electronic means (as the case may be). 
‘‘(d) FAILURE TO FURNISH PRODUCT.—If an appli-
cable official fails to furnish an IDP to the Superintendent 
of Documents under this section— 
‘‘(1) the Superintendent is authorized to obtain 
the IDP; and 
‘‘(2) the office of the applicable official shall re-
imburse the Superintendent for the costs incurred in 
obtaining and disseminating the IDP. 
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‘‘(e) ADDITIONAL METHODS OF OBTAINING PROD-
UCTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In addition to the proce-
dures in this section, the Superintendent of Docu-
ments may use any other means not prohibited by 
law to obtain an information dissemination product 
for inclusion in the national collection under this 
subchapter. 
‘‘(2) COLLECTION
OF
PRODUCTS
IN
COLLEC-
TION
OF
FEDERAL
DEPOSITORY
LIBRARIES.—The 
Superintendent may enter into arrangements with a 
Federal Depository Library under subchapter D to 
obtain from such Library any IDPs in the Library’s 
own collection of documents and materials and the 
metadata associated with any such IDPs. 
‘‘(f) ROLE OF DIRECTOR OF THE GOVERNMENT PUB-
LISHING OFFICE.— 
‘‘(1) SUPERVISION AND OVERSIGHT.—The Su-
perintendent of Documents shall carry out this sec-
tion under the supervision of the Director of the 
Government Publishing Office, who shall be respon-
sible for ensuring the compliance of offices of the 
Federal Government with this section. 
‘‘(2) AVAILABILITY
OF
GPO
PRODUCTS.—The 
Director of the Government Publishing Office shall 
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