The Director of the Government Publishing Office shall execute such printing and binding for the President as he may order and make requisition for.

When a department, the Supreme Court, or the Library of Congress requires printing or binding to be done, it shall certify that it is necessary for the public service. The Director of the Government Publishing Office shall then furnish an estimate of cost by principal items, after which requisitions may be made upon him for the printing or binding by the head of the department, the Clerk of the Supreme Court, or the Librarian of Congress, respectively. The Director of the Government Publishing Office shall place the cost to the debit of the department in its annual appropriation for printing and binding.

Appropriations made for printing and binding may not be used for an illustration, engraving, or photograph in a document or report ordered printed by Congress unless the order to print expressly authorizes it, nor in a document or report of an executive department, independent office or establishment of the Government until the head of the executive department or Government establishment certifies in a letter transmitting the report that the illustration, engraving, or photograph is necessary and relates entirely to the transaction of public business.

The Director of the Government Publishing Office shall determine the form and style in which the printing or binding ordered by a department is executed, and the material and the size of type used, having proper regard to economy, workmanship, and the purposes for which the work is needed.

A report, document, or publication distributed by or from an executive department or independent agency or establishment of the Government may not contain a notice that it is sent with “the compliments” of an officer of the Government, or with a special notice that it is so sent, except that notice that it has been sent, with a request for an acknowledgment of its receipt, may be given.

The head of an executive department, independent agency or establishment of the Government, with the approval of the President, may use from the appropriations available for printing and binding such sums as are necessary for the printing of journals, magazines, periodicals, and similar publications he certifies in writing to be necessary in the transaction of the public business required by law of the department, office, or establishment. There may be printed, in addition to those necessary for the public business, not to exceed two thousand copies for free distribution by the issuing department, office, or establishment. The Director of the Government Publishing Office, subject to regulation by the Joint Committee on Printing, shall print additional copies required for sale to the public by the Superintendent of Documents; but the printing of these additional copies may not interfere with the prompt execution of printing for the Government.

The number of copies of a public document or report authorized to be printed for an executive department, independent agency, or establishment of the Government may be supplied in two or more editions, instead of one, upon a requisition on the Director of the Government Publishing Office by the head of the department or independent office, but the aggregate of the editions may not exceed the number of copies otherwise authorized. This section does not preclude the printing of the full number of a document or report, or the allotment of the full quota to Senators and Representatives, as otherwise authorized, when a legitimate demand for the full complement is known to exist.

The heads of executive departments, independent agencies and establishments, respectively, shall cause daily examination of the Congressional Record for the purpose of noting documents, reports, and other publications of interest to their departments, and shall cause an immediate order to be sent to the Director of the Government Publishing Office for the number of copies of the publications required for official use, not to exceed, however, the number of bureaus in the department and divisions in the office of the head. The Director of the Government Publishing Office shall send to each executive department, independent agency and establishment, as soon as printed, five copies of public bills and resolutions, except to the State Department, to which he shall send ten copies of bills and resolutions. When the head of a department, independent agency or establishment desires a greater number of a class of bills or resolutions for official use, the Director of the Government Publishing Office shall furnish them on requisition promptly made.

The appropriations made for printing and binding may not be used for an annual report or the accompanying documents unless the manuscript and proof is furnished to the Director of the Government Publishing Office in the following manner:

manuscript of the documents accompanying annual reports on or before February 1, each year;

manuscript of the annual report on or before February 15, each year;

complete revised proofs of the accompanying documents on March 1, each year, and of the annual reports on March 10, each year.

Annual reports and accompanying documents shall be printed, made public, and available for distribution not later than within the first five days after the assembling of each regular session of Congress.

This section does not apply to the annual reports of the Smithsonian Institution, the Comptroller of the Currency, or the Secretary of the Treasury.

The annual reports of executive officers shall be printed in the same type and form as the report of the head of the department which it accompanies, unless otherwise ordered by the Joint Committee on Printing.

Executive officers, before transmitting their annual reports, shall carefully examine them and all accompanying documents, and exclude all matter, including engravings, maps, drawings, and illustrations, except such as they certify in their letters transmitting the reports are necessary and relate entirely to the transaction of the public business.

One thousand copies of the annual reports of the departments to Congress shall be printed for the Senate, and two thousand for the House of Representatives.

The usual number only of the reports of the Chief of Engineers of the Army, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the report of the Chief Signal Officer of the Department of the Army, and the Chief of Ordnance shall be printed.

The annual reports of the Executive Departments and the accompanying documents shall be delivered by the Director of the Government Publishing Office to the proper officer of each House of Congress at its first meeting. Other reports of the Executive Departments shall be so delivered on or before the third Wednesday next after the meeting of Congress or as soon after as may be practicable.

Not to exceed five thousand copies, bound in pamphlet form, of the annual reports without appendices of a head of a department may be printed in a fiscal year. Not to exceed two thousand five hundred copies, bound in pamphlet form, of the reports without appendices of a chief of bureau may be printed in a fiscal year.

A head of department shall direct whether reports made to him by a bureau chief and chief of division may be printed or not.

In order to keep expenditures for printing and binding within appropriations, heads of executive departments, independent offices and establishments of the Government may discontinue the printing of annual or special reports under their respective jurisdictions. When the printing of reports is discontinued the original copy shall be kept on file in the office of the heads of the respective departments, independent offices or establishments for public inspection.

A book or document not having to do with the ordinary business transactions of the executive departments may not be printed on the requisition of a department unless expressly authorized by Congress.

Government publications of a permanent nature furnished by authority of law to officers other than Members of Congress of the United States Government, for their official use, shall be stamped “Property of the United States Government,” and shall be preserved by them and delivered to their successors in office as a part of the property of the office.

Blanks and letterheads for use by judges and other officials of the United States courts, other than those required to be paid for by any of these officers out of the emoluments of their offices, shall be printed at the Government Publishing Office upon forms prescribed by the Department of Justice, and shall be distributed by it upon requisition.

The Director of the Government Publishing Office may procure, under direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, as provided by sections 509–516 of this title, and furnish on requisition, paper and envelopes (not including envelopes printed in the course of manufacture) in common use by two or more departments, establishments, or services of the Government in the District of Columbia, and reimbursement shall be made to the Director of the Government Publishing Office from appropriations or funds available for the purpose. Paper and envelopes so furnished by the Director of the Government Publishing Office may not be procured in any other manner.

The Director of the Government Publishing Office may procure and supply, on the requisition of the head of an executive department, independent office or establishment of the Government, complete manifold blanks, books, and forms required in duplicating processes, and complete patented devices with which to file money-order statements, or other uniform official papers, and charge them to the allotment for printing and binding of the department or Government establishment requiring them.

Binding for the departments of the Government shall be done in plain sheep or cloth, except that record and account books may be bound in Russia leather, sheep fleshers, and skivers, when authorized by the head of a department. The libraries of the several departments, the Library of Congress, the libraries of the Surgeon General’s Office, and the Naval Observatory may have books for the exclusive use of these libraries bound in half Turkey, or material no more expensive.