Title 44Public Printing and DocumentsRelease 119-73

§1702 Superintendent of Documents; sale of documents

Title 44 › Chapter CHAPTER 17— - DISTRIBUTION AND SALE OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS › § 1702

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Director of the Government Publishing Office must appoint a qualified Superintendent of Documents who works under the Director. Government officers with documents printed for sale may give them to the Superintendent to sell. Money from sales must be returned to the Director on the first day of each month and placed into the Treasury. The Superintendent must report monthly to the Director how many documents were received and what happened to them, and manage distribution of public documents, except those for executive departments or for the two Houses of Congress, which go to those services.

Full Legal Text

Title 44, §1702

Public Printing and Documents — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Director of the Government Publishing Office shall appoint a competent person to act as Superintendent of Documents who shall be under the control of the Director of the Government Publishing Office. When an officer of the Government having in his charge documents published for sale desires to be relieved of them, he may turn them over to the Superintendent of Documents, who shall receive and sell them under this section. Moneys received from the sale of documents shall be returned to the Director of the Government Publishing Office on the first day of each month and be covered into the Treasury monthly. The Superintendent of Documents shall also report monthly to the Director of the Government Publishing Office the number of documents received by him and the disposition made of them. He shall have general supervision of the distribution of all public documents, and to his custody shall be committed all documents subject to distribution, excepting those printed for the special official use of the executive departments, which shall be delivered to the departments, and those printed for the use of the two Houses of Congress, which shall be delivered to the Senate Service Department and House of Representatives Publications Distribution Service and distributed or delivered ready for distribution to Members upon their order by the superintendents of the Senate Service Department and House Publications Distribution Service, respectively.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Based on 44 U.S. Code, 1964 ed., §§ 71, 73 (part) (Jan. 12, 1895, ch. 23, § 61, 28 Stat. 610; June 25, 1910, ch. 384, § 1, 36 Stat. 770; Aug. 7, 1946, ch. 770, § 1(62), 60 Stat. 871). This section incorporates only part of former section 73. The balance will be found in section 308 of the revision. “House of Representatives Publications Distribution Service” is substituted for “House Folding Room” because of the

Change of Name

under authority of Public Law 88–652.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2014—Pub. L. 113–235 substituted “Director of the Government Publishing Office” for “Public Printer” wherever appearing.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

44 U.S.C. § 1702

Title 44Public Printing and Documents

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73