The National Archives and GPO Celebrate 70th Anniversary of the Federal Register
Press Release · Friday, March 10, 2006

What: The National Archives and the Government Printing Office (GPO) will mark the 70th anniversary of the printing of the first edition of the Federal Register (the daily newspaper of the Federal government) with an anniversary program.

Who: Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States
Bruce R. James, Public Printer of the United States
Ted Stevens, U.S. Senate President Pro Tempore
Paul Clement, Solicitor General of the United States
Claire Germain, President of the American Association of Law Libraries

When: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 at 9:00 a.m., EST

Where: GPO's Harding Hall
Arrive at GPO's Bookstore entrance
710 North Capitol Street, NW
Washington, DC 20401

Federal Register: The Federal Register, which is part of the National Archives, is founded on key principles of democracy: openness in Government; due process; constructive notice prior to an action by the Government which may impact our freedoms; and public participation in Government decision-making. Since rulemaking has a direct impact on most Americans, what appears in the Federal Register daily is very important to the American people. Evidence of this can be found in the fact that over the past two years, the public has downloaded almost 200 million Federal Register documents each year. During each of the past ten years, the Federal Register has published more than 70 thousand pages of rulemaking documents. In 1936, the Register published 2620 pages for the entire year. Today, the Register publishes that many pages in a typical week.

National Archives: The National Archives and Records Administration an independent federal agency, is the nation's record keeper. Founded in 1934, its mission is to serve American democracy by safeguarding and preserving the records of our Government, ensuring that the people can discover, use, and learn from this documentary heritage. The Office of the Federal Register, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration, also edits and publishes the annual Code of Federal Regulations, the United States Statutes-at-Large, the Public Papers of the President, and the U.S. Government Manual. Its publications are all available for free on a current basis on the Internet.

GPO: The GPO is the Federal Government's primary centralized resource for gathering, cataloging, producing, providing, authenticating, and preserving published U.S. Government information in all its forms. GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government. In addition to publication sales, GPO makes government information available at no cost to the public through GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov), and through partnerships with more than 1,250 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. For more information, please visit www.gpoaccess.gov.

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For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs Staff at 202-357-5300.

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