The United States Government Manual was published
initially as a loose-leaf notebook, its pages held in place by three metal
rings. For over eight decades, this New Deal-era publication has been the
"official handbook" of the Federal Government. A regularly
updated special edition of the Federal
Register, it includes leadership tables and describes agency activities and programs of the
executive, judicial, and legislative branches of Government, as well as
activities and programs of quasi-official agencies and international organizations
in which the United States participates as a member.
The 2018 Government Manual also has Sources of Information sections covering a host of topics and containing links to online resources. Here are examples to illustrate the wide range of topics covered in these sections: aircraft and ships, America the Beautiful passes, answers to FAQs, artists, atmospheric carbon dioxide, auctions, bank regulators, birdwatchers, blogs,
bullying, bus travel safety, career and business opportunities, chemical
exposure, Chief of Staff's reading list, climate and sustainability, cooperative practices and cooperative principles, credit cards, credit
unions, datasets and statistics, debt collection, democracy, disease, earthquakes and landslides, Ecuador and Venezuela, Electoral
College, endangered species and wildlife, flood insurance, Founding Fathers, Freedom of Information Act and Open
Government, gardening and organic agriculture, glossaries, Green Card and
naturalization, greenhouse gas emissions, green jobs, historic Federal courthouses, history and
timelines, homelessness and homeless veterans, Landsat, landscaping, law enforcement, learning American
English, lessons of the Holocaust, LGBT youth, maps, Marine Corps bands and tattoo policy, Medals of
Honor, minimum wage, museums, news and announcements, organ donation and
transplantation, organizational charts, over 9 billion records, payday loans, plain language, planets, publications, public debt, quantitative easing, recreation, renewable energy, savings bonds and Treasury bills, search tools,
seigniorage, sexual assault, shipwrecks and ship disposal, site maps and A–Z
indices, snarge, social media, sport fish and tips for fishing, student loans, suicide prevention, tobacco-free living, travel warnings
and wait times, trees on Capitol Grounds, underage drinking, volcanic activity, water conservation and resources, whistle-blower disclosures, wild horses and
burros, women in the labor force, and more.