USDA: Relocation of departmental directives, forms
The Office of the Chief Information Officer and the Office of Budget and Program Analysis, Departmental Policy Office have been working for some time to update and move the departmental directives and departmental forms webpages to a centralized location that would no longer be affected by reorganizations or office name changes. On Dec. 10, 2021, the new pages were activated and shortly after that date, the directives and forms links found on the OCIO webpages were decommissioned.
Departmental directives and departmental forms are now found at the following URLs.
Departmental Directives
Main directives page: https://www.usda.gov/directives
Directives by categories: https://www.usda.gov/directives/directives-categories
What’s new (listing by FY and publication month): https://www.usda.gov/directives/whats-new
Departmental Forms
Main forms page: https://www.usda.gov/forms
Electronic forms: https://www.usda.gov/forms/electronic-forms
FAQs
Q: Will the old links from the OCIO Directives and Forms webpages automatically take me to the new pages?
A: No, they will not; you will need to save the new URLs in your browser favorites list and any other locations where you may be pointing to them. The effort to redirect all of the old URLs that have changed over the past 10+ years was labor intensive and expensive to correct, so a decision was made to start with fresh information.
Q: Now that the directives and forms have moved to a new location, does that mean the links within the departmental directives we own need to be fixed?
A: Unfortunately, yes. We recommend that you update those links when your office performs its annual directives review, but if your office wants to make those updates sooner than that, you may do so.
NOTE: Making link updates in a directive is considered to be a minor correction under the amendment process identified in DM 0100-001, Section 6a(1)(d)3, and will only require your directive to go through the streamlined formal review process (assuming that no other changes are needed and your directive was recently issued or revised—5 years or less for DRs; 3 years or less for DMs).
Q: Our agency has a page with a copy of all the departmental directives we reference for our mission-related topics. What is the best way for us to update this information?
A: Make sure the directives listed on that page are not copies of the policies; those directives should be links that point to the authoritative versions of the directives posted on the departmental directives webpage. That way, if policies are updated, you will always have the latest and greatest version available to your users. The same practice should also be used to link to departmental forms.
Q: Who do I need to talk to if I have questions about department policies and forms?
A: If you have questions about departmental directives or departmental forms, you will need to contact the Departmental Policy Office. The best way to do that is to send an email to SM.OES.DPO@usda.gov. If you have questions about a specific agency policy, you will need to contact that agency directly. The agency policy contact list can be found at https://www.usda.gov/directives/departmental-directives-contacts.