What are executive orders and proclamations?

What is an executive order?

The National Archives' FAQ about executive orders says that executive orders are official documents, numbered consecutively, through which the President of the United States manages the operations of the Federal Government. The text appears in the daily Federal Register as each order is signed by the President and received by the Office of the Federal Register. The text of executive orders from Executive Order 7316 of 13 March 1936 onward also appears in the sequential editions of Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

The Federal Register's executive orders page describes the same path: after the President signs an order, the White House sends it to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), which numbers each order consecutively as part of a series and publishes it in the daily Federal Register shortly after receipt.

What is a proclamation?

The Federal Register's presidential documents page has a separate section for proclamations and describes the same handling: after the President signs a proclamation, the White House sends it to the OFR, which numbers it consecutively as part of a series and publishes it in the daily Federal Register shortly after receipt. The page says proclamations are available back through 1994. We did not read a statutory definition of how a proclamation differs in legal effect from an executive order, so we do not state one. The two are listed as separate kinds of presidential document, each with its own series.

Why is there a delay between signing and publication?

The Federal Register's page explains it directly: because the White House cannot deliver a document to the OFR until after the President signs it, there is always a delay of at least one day, typically several days, between signing and publication. Once received, the OFR gives presidential documents priority processing, and documents appear on public inspection the business day before publication.

Where do you search them?

• Federal Register. The executive orders page lets you browse by President and year, and offers bulk downloads in CSV and JSON for all orders signed since 1937, and by President. The Federal Register's API also serves presidential documents. When we asked it on 10 October 2026, the first result was a presidential document titled "Emergency Tax Relief on Diesel Fuel", document number 2026-20855, published on 9 October 2026.
• National Archives. The OFR maintains disposition tables for executive orders from Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration on, with the order number, signing date, Federal Register citation, title, amendments and current status. The Archives says the tables are informational listings and not definitive legal authority.

Is the Federal Register website the legal text?

Not by itself. The site says it displays a prototype version of the daily Federal Register that is not an official legal edition, that each document links to the official PDF on govinfo.gov, and that anyone relying on it for legal research should verify against an official edition. So for anything that matters legally, open the govinfo.gov version linked from the document.

How do executive orders relate to company research?

Some orders and proclamations name industries, products or companies. OQRO's White House page lists executive orders, proclamations and memoranda published in the Federal Register and shows the companies they name by exact name. It matches companies by exact name. The order itself is on the Federal Register.

How do you check what a particular order says?

Start from the Federal Register's executive orders page and browse by President and year, or search for the order's title or number. Open the document's page, and use the link to the official PDF on govinfo.gov for the authoritative text. To see whether an order has been amended or revoked, look it up in the National Archives disposition tables, which list the order number, signing date, Federal Register citation, title, amendments and current status, bearing in mind the Archives' own caution that they are informational listings, not definitive legal authority.

Numbering helps. Each executive order is numbered consecutively as part of a series by the Office of the Federal Register, so the number identifies one document unambiguously. The same page also lets you download every order signed since 1937 in bulk, in CSV or JSON, which is the practical route if you want to search the whole set by program.

How should you cite an order?

Use its number, its title and its Federal Register citation, all of which appear in the disposition tables and on the document page. A news headline or a summary is not a citation. Because publication follows signing by at least a day, the signing date and the publication date are two different facts, and a careful citation gives both when it matters. The Archives adds that its tables are informational listings, so for legal use go to an official edition of the Federal Register through govinfo.gov.

What this does not tell you

A published order says what the President signed and on what date. It does not say how an agency will carry it out, whether it will be amended or revoked, or whether a named company is affected in any way. A mention of a company name is only that: a mention. Nothing here is a view on any order's merit. For the financial disclosures that officials themselves file, see OGE Form 278e versus 278-T.