GPO Unveils Digitally-Signed Public Laws

In furthering its mission to provide permanent public access to authentic U.S. Government publications, GPO is working to afford users further assurance that files electronically disseminated through GPO Access are unchanged since GPO authenticated them and provide security for and safeguard Federal Government publications that fall within scope of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).

GPO has launched its first authenticated pilot application--Public and Private Laws. While public laws are provided on GPO Access in ASCII text and PDF formats, only the PDF files for the 110th Congress have been authenticated. These digitally-signed files contain GPO's Seal of Authenticity, which notifies users that a document has not been altered since it was authenticated and disseminated by GPO.

GPO is using PKI and Digital Signature technologies to verify the authenticity of the electronic U.S. Government documents that it disseminates through the FDLP. As part of testing GPO's authentication technology, feedback is being collected from all users on the beta Authenticated 110th Congress Public and Private Laws application. Your input and comments provided will be used to provide the groundwork for the expectations and preferences of GPO's customers for future authentication technology and authenticated application releases.