The following was developed by Beth Harper, Government information/reference librarian at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Memorial Library, reproduced here by permission.
Where to find executive orders
Executive orders may be issued by the President of the United States. Unlike federal laws, there’s no fun “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoon about what executive orders are, so here's a tiny bit of background. Per the website Govinfo.gov’s page “About Executive Orders,” “Executive Orders have the force and effect of law and are generally used by the Executive Office of the President to provide direction to Federal Agencies and officials as they carry out operations within the executive branch.” Here are two government websites where you can find the texts of these orders:
The White House site, https://www.whitehouse.gov, and in particular, the “presidential actions” section, has the texts of executive orders signed by the President. This site is often where the orders first appear. Executive orders on the White House website aren’t numbered (the Office of the Federal Register gives the orders their numbers, and it takes time for the OFF to receive and process the orders). As of January 29, 2025, not everything in the Whitehouse.gov site's “Presidential Actions” section is an executive order. Some items are proclamations; some are basically press releases.
From the Federal Register’s “Executive Orders” page:
"After the President signs an Executive order, the White House sends it to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR). The OFR numbers each order consecutively as part of a series and publishes it in the daily Federal Register shortly after receipt.
….
Because the White House cannot deliver a document to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) until after the President signs a document, there is always a delay (of at least one day, typically of several days) between when the President signs a document and when it is published.”
After the description of executive orders and the publishing process, there are links to download all the executive orders by president in bulk. That section is followed by “Executive Order disposition tables,” which lists links to executive orders in reverse chronological order.
