Departmental Directives

The USDA Departmental Directives system is the online repository of all USDA Departmental Regulations, Notices, Manuals, Guidebooks, and Secretary’s Memoranda. The Departmental Directives system is managed by the Office of Budget and Program Analysis (OBPA), Departmental Policy Office (DPO). OBPA DPO facilitates the final editing, review, clearance, and publication process for all Departmental directives.

USDA Mission Areas, agencies, and staff offices will use the Departmental Directives system to issue policies, procedures, and guidance which have general applicability to employees and two or more agencies or staff offices. Directives that are applicable to only one agency or staff office are not part of the Departmental directives system; those guidance documents are managed by the respective agency or staff office.

The Directives system can be accessed by selecting “Directives by Category” from the navigation panel on the left of this screen. From that web page, users can find resources for creating and clearing Departmental directives, plain language support, and the listing of all active Departmental Directives.