The Serial Set includes a broad miscellany of executive branch publications. Apart from presidential messages, which have regularly been included, some of these documents appear because Congress has ordered a department or agency report to it on a regular basis, and some appear because members want a supply of reports on particular topics for their own use and for distribution to the public. Congressional policy for inclusion of executive branch publications has not been entirely systematic or consistent.
Executive branch publications appearing in the Serial Set include the following:
- Messages of the President of the U.S.
- The annual administrative reports of departments and agencies
- A number of serial publications such as the Geological Survey Bulletins
- Reports on foreign commerce and navigation, produced under various titles by the Dept. of Commerce and its predecessor, the Dept. of Commerce and Labor
- Commercial relations, commercial policy, and foreign relation series of the Dept. of State
- Reports and bulletins of the Bureau of Ethnology in the Smithsonian Institution
- Bulletins of the Bureau of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics
- The Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract
