September 2020 Release Notes

This release closes out Fiscal Year 2020 with the implementation of 64 individually tracked changes. These changes include the completion of final tasks related to the recent major technology refresh, a range of search and display enhancements, and improvements to the repository. This article highlights some of these key changes, summarizes other noteworthy activities, and recaps new content, feature articles, and top searches since the previous release. Please note that some system changes may require content to be reprocessed or republished for the updates to take effect and this will be completed over a period of time.

Government Experience Award: On September 24, govinfo was recognized with a 2020 Government Experience Award for achievements and best practices that are radically improving the experience of Government and pushing the boundaries of how citizen services are delivered.

Data Modernization: On September 10, GPO participated in a panel discussion on data modernization at the Congress.gov Virtual Public Forum along with staff members from the Library of Congress, the Clerk of the House, and the Secretary of the Senate organizations. GPO’s panel presentation showcased:

• XPub, GPO’s flagship data modernization toolset;
• USLM, the modern XML schema that allows information to be easily shared and repurposed; and
• govinfo, GPO’s delivery platform for current and historical Federal Government information from all three branches that makes information available in machine readable formats and provides bulk data and API access. (Learn more about govinfo's developer tools.)

During the forum, GPO announced that we plan to make an additional 10 years of Bill Status XML files available on govinfo in early FY21. This is part of the ongoing commitment to data modernization initiatives with our partners at the Library of Congress, the House, and the Senate.

Visit the Legislative Branch Innovation Hub to view GPO’s slide presentation from the event and learn more about GPO’s data modernization efforts.

Search and Display Enhancements: In addition to implementing a distinct color for visited links throughout the site and enabling sorting by date of Public Laws on Related Documents tabs of select Details pages in the Compilation of Presidential Documents collection (see example), we have launched the new capability to search within About, Features, and Help sections through a separate search box.

The new search box is located on select About, Features, and Help pages on the left side, and you can enter one or more search terms and use the magnifying glass icon to execute the search.

Your results will display on a separate page and will indicate your keyword(s) in bold to help you determine if that result is helpful to you.

Here are some search examples to get you started exploring the depth of information in these pages:

• A help topic, e.g. “annotating pdfs” or "view historical results”
• Something you need help looking for, e.g. “executive orders” or “CFR Parts Affected”
• An observance, e.g. “Flag Day” or “Black History Month”
• Information about govinfo like “policies” or “logos” or “508”

We encourage you to explore the information in the About, Features, and Help sections that:

• highlight valuable tips for locating documents within the govinfo repository,
• identify available metadata fields and values for searching various publications, and
• showcase articles featuring available content, provide information on the history of the system, and so much more.

Technology Refresh: The final tasks in our major technology refresh included migrating from legacy application servers to a new technology stack that will support our migration to a microservices approach, a precursor to our continued move towards technologies supporting cloud-infrastructure. This effort will reduce overall operational costs and enable more rapid and sustainable service delivery.

Repository Enhancements: Ten component upgrades were completed for the repository in both primary and backup locations and implemented backend work in preparation to support the submission of additional content including Bill Status XML and Statute Compilations in USLM XML.

Developer Tool Enhancements: A correction was made to the lastModified time formatting for the Bulk Data Repository that was impacting the ability of some crawlers to download files programmatically. Dates are now formatted in 24 hour time.

New Content : More than 17,600 content packages (a package is roughly equivalent to one bound printed document) have been made available since the last release in July. Notable submissions include the Unified Agenda in the Federal Register and the final documents to complete the collection of more than 11,000 Railroad Retirement Board publications.

Feature Articles : Seven articles were featured including the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote, Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and an article in memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Top Searches

• The CARES Act remains a top search. See a curated list of relief bills and other COVID-19 related documents.
• DHS Notification of Termination of Arrival Restrictions
• CDC Temporary Halt in Evictions
• 2 CFR 200 establishes requirements for Federal awards to non-Federal entities such as payments from the Coronavirus Relief Fund.
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• The final rule updating regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, (Statute Compilation*, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) went into effect on September 14, 2020.

Other Minor Fixes and Improvements

• Implemented numerous display tweaks including placement of Help buttons on larger screens, display of FR TOC, search icons on mobile menus, site logo placement on the API page, help page menu highlighting, and Document in Context highlighting on mobile devices.
• Updated the parser for the Congressional Directory collection and for empty elements in the Compilation of Presidential Documents collection.
• Added entries to a white list for ensuring proper title capitalization in display.
• Adjusted Federal Register standard references in the Privacy Act Issuances schema.
• Updated several automated regression tests.
• Disabled archival renditions from regenerating in other areas of the content management system when reprocessed from the preservation repository.
• Fixed a caching issue causing packages to reprocess when certain non-key metadata elements are edited.
• Allowed for entering multiple metadata values for certain fields when submitting metadata in CSV format.
• Enabled automated removal of temporary files from certain Federal Register packages within the content management system.
• Improved error messaging for logging into the content management system.
• Corrected link in one repository email notification and modified another for clarity.
• Resolved issue with uploading zip files to the repository.
• Improved consistency of Budget content links opening in new tabs.

*A Statute Compilation is a compilation of the public law, as amended, is an unofficial document, and should not be cited as legal evidence of the law. Learn more.