Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to Find Them

Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to

Find Them

(name redacted)

Law Librarian

March 21, 2012

Congressional Research Service

7-....

www.crs.gov

RL30812

CRS Report for Congress

Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to Find Them

Summary

This report provides a brief overview of federal statutes and where to find them, both in print and

on the Internet. When Congress passes a law, it may amend or repeal earlier enactments or it may

create new law. Newly enacted laws are published chronologically, first as separate statutes in

“slip law” form and later cumulatively in a series of volumes known as the Statutes at Large.

Statutes are numbered by order of enactment either as public laws or, far less frequently, private

laws, depending on their scope. Most statutes are incorporated into the United States Code. The

United States Code and its commercial counterparts arrange federal statutes, that are of a general

and permanent nature, by subject into titles. As the statutes that underlie the Code are revised,

superseded, or repealed, the provisions of the Code are updated to reflect these changes.

Statutes and the United States Code can be found on the Internet. In addition, the slip law

versions of public laws are available in official print form from the Government Printing Office.

Federal Depository Libraries (e.g., university and state libraries) provide slip laws in print and/or

microfiche format. The Statutes at Large series often is available at large libraries. The United

States Code and its commercial counterparts are usually available at local libraries.

Many statutes (for example, the Social Security Act and the Clean Air Act) are published and

updated both in the public law, as amended, version and in the United States Code. For some

titles the public law, as amended, is the authoritative version of the statute and not the Code. If the

title is asterisked, the Code provides the authoritative version of the public law, as amended.

After providing an overview on the basics of federal statutes, this report gives guidance on where

federal statutes, in their various forms, may be located on the Internet. This report will be updated

periodically.

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Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to Find Them

Contents

Public Laws and Private Laws......................................................................................................... 1

Commercial Sources of Public Laws (Print Format)................................................................. 1

The United States Statutes At Large................................................................................................. 1

Public Laws, as Amended................................................................................................................ 2

United States Code........................................................................................................................... 3

Annotated Editions of the United States Code .......................................................................... 3

General Index ...................................................................................................................... 3

Popular Name Table ............................................................................................................ 3

Statutes at Large Table ........................................................................................................ 3

Finding Federal Statutes on the Internet .......................................................................................... 4

Contacts

Author Contact Information............................................................................................................. 5

Congressional Research Service

Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to Find Them

T

his report provides a brief overview of federal statutes and where to find them, in print

format and on the Internet. When Congress passes a law, it may amend or repeal earlier

enactments or it may create new law. Newly enacted laws are published chronologically,

first as separate statutes in “slip law” form and later cumulatively in the bound volumes of the

Statutes at Large. Additionally, most statutes are also incorporated into the United States Code

(U.S.C.). The U.S.C. and its commercial counterparts, United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.) and

United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.), take the federal statutes that are of a general and

permanent nature and arrange them by subject into 51 separate titles. As the statutes that underlie

the Code are revised, superseded, or repealed, the provisions of the Code are updated to reflect

these changes.

Public Laws and Private Laws

When a piece of legislation is enacted under the procedures set forth in Article 1, Section 7 of the

Constitution, it is characterized as a “public law” or a “private law.” Each new statute is assigned

a number according to its order of enactment within a particular Congress (e.g., the 10th public

law enacted in the 112th Congress was numbered as P.L. 112-10; the 10th private law was

numbered Priv. L. 112-10). Private laws are enacted for the benefit of a named individual or

entity (e.g., due to exceptional individual circumstances, Congress enacts a law providing a

government reimbursement to a named person who would not otherwise be eligible under general

law). In contrast, public laws are of general applicability and permanent and continuing in nature.

Public laws form the basis of the Code. The first official publication of the law is called the slip

law.

The Government Printing Office’s (GPO’s) Federal Digital System (FDsys) provides free online

access to official federal government publications. Individual slip laws in printed pamphlet form

can be obtained from the GPO. Federal Depository Libraries, located throughout the United

States, also provide free public access to federal publications and other information. A list of

Federal Depository Libraries and their locations is accessible on the Internet at

http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/FDLPdir.jsp. Some private and public libraries compile the laws in

looseleaf binders or in microfiche collections.

Commercial Sources of Public Laws (Print Format)

The United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.) compiles and

publishes public laws chronologically in their slip law version. U.S.C.C.A.N.’s annual bound

volumes and monthly print supplements include the texts of new enactments and selected Senate,

House, and/or conference reports. The U.S.C.S. and the U.S.C.A. publish new public laws

chronologically as supplements.

The United States Statutes At Large

Slip laws (both public laws and private laws) are accumulated, corrected, and published at the end

of each session of Congress in a series of bound volumes entitled Statutes at Large. The laws are

cited by volume and page number (e.g., 96 Stat. 1259 refers to page 1259 of volume 96 of the

Statutes at Large). Researchers are most likely to resort to this publication when they are

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Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to Find Them

interested in the original language of a statute or in statutes that are not codified in the Code, such

as appropriations or private laws.

Public Laws, as Amended

Most statutes do not initiate new programs. Rather, most statutes revise, repeal, or add to existing

statutes. Consider the following sequence of enactments.

•

In 1952, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (P.L. 82414, 66 Stat. 163). This law generally consolidated and amended federal statutory

law on the admission and stay of aliens in the United States and how they may

become citizens. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was codified at

Title 8 of the U.S.C. §§1 et seq.

•

In 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (P.L.

99-603, 100 Stat. 3359). Section 101 of this act amended Section 274 of the

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (codified at 8 U.S.C §1324) by adding

Section 274a (codified at 8 USC §1324a). This new section (Section 274a) made

it unlawful for a person to hire for employment in the United States an illegal

alien.

•

In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant

Responsibility Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-208, Division C, 110 Stat. 3009). Section

412 of the 1996 act amended the employer sanctions process by requiring an

employer to verify that a new employee is not an illegal alien. As with the 1986

act, the 1996 act expressly amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

(Section 274A in this case) and Section 1324a in Title 8 of the U.S.C. (8 U.S.C.

§1324a).

As the above sequence illustrates, the canvas upon which Congress works is often an updated,

stand-alone version of an earlier public law (e.g., Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as

amended), and not the U.S. Code. On the “Titles of United States Code” page of the Code an

asterisk appears next to some of the titles. The asterisks refer to a note that states: “This title has

been enacted as positive law.” If the title is asterisked, the Code provides the authoritative version

of the public law, as amended. For example, there is no asterisk beside Title 42 of the U.S.C.

Thus, the provisions codified in Title 42 are not authoritative. Should there be a discrepancy, a

court will accept the language in the Statutes at Large as the authoritative source and not the

Code. It should be noted that there is no substantive difference between the language of the public

law as published in the Statutes at Large and that of the Code.

It is often difficult to find current, updated versions of frequently amended public laws. Many

congressional committees periodically issue committee prints containing the major public laws

within their respective jurisdictions. Alternatively, the various commercial publishers, discussed

herein, print updated versions of major public laws. In addition, the amended versions of some

major public laws can be found on the Internet.

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Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to Find Them

United States Code

The United States Code (U.S.C.) is the official government codification of federal legislation.

This resource has been printed by the GPO every six years since 1926 and supplemented by

annual cumulative bound volumes. The latest edition is dated 2006. The Office of the Law

Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives and FDsys provide authoritative and

current online access to the U.S.C.

In the U.S.C., statutes are grouped by subject into 51 titles. Each title is further organized into

chapters and sections. A listing of the titles is provided in each volume. Unlike the statutes, the

Code is cited by title and section number (e.g., 28 U.S.C. §534 refers to Section 534 of Title 28).

Notes at the end of each section provide additional information, including statutory origin of the

Code provision (both by public law number and Statutes at Large citation), the effective date(s), a

brief citation and discussion of any amendments, and cross references to related provisions.

Annotated Editions of the United States Code

The United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) published by Thomson/West and the United States

Code Service (U.S.C.S.) published by LexisNexis are unofficial, privately published editions of

the Code. These publications often include the text of the Code, annotations to judicial decisions

interpreting the sections, cross references to the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) provisions,

and historical notes. Both also provide references to selected secondary sources. For example, the

U.S.C.S. includes selected law review articles.

Bound volumes of the U.S.C.A. and the U.S.C.S. are updated by annual inserts (“pocket parts”) or

supplements. These updates include newly codified laws and annotations. Both U.S.C.A. and

U.S.C.S. issue pamphlets containing copies of recently enacted public laws arranged in

chronological order. Since there is a time lag in publishing the official U.S.C., codified versions

of new enactments usually appear first in the U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S. supplements.

General Index

Each edition of the Code has a comprehensive index that is organized by subject. The index is

updated in each annual supplement to the Code.

Popular Name Table

Each edition of the Code also has a table that can be used to find an act and where it was codified

in the Code. The public laws are arranged alphabetically and can be searched under their

commonly known names. This reference also provides the public law number and the citations to

the Statutes at Large, U.S.C., and their amendments. For example, searching for the “Stone Act”

in the table shows that it has been codified at 30 U.S.C. §161.

Statutes at Large Table

The Statutes at Large table is one of the most useful research tools because it shows the

relationship between public laws, the Statutes at Large, and the U.S.C. A researcher who has

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Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to Find Them

either a public law number or a Statutes at Large citation can use this table to ascertain where that

law is codified and its present status. The table is particularly useful when searching in one

section of a law that contains many subsections because it can be used to find where individual

sections and subsections of a public law have been codified. For example, the table indicates that

P.L. 99-661, Section 1403 is codified in the U.S.C. at 20 U.S.C. §4702.

U.S.C.A. and the U.S.C.S. also have their own versions of the research tools discussed above.

Finding Federal Statutes on the Internet

Legal resources, including federal statutes, are widely available to both scholars and the general

public through the Internet. Several considerations should be taken into account when using

Internet materials.

•

Materials on Internet sites may not be up-to-date, and it may be difficult to

discern how current the material is or whether it has been revised.

•

It may be difficult to find current federal statutes, especially in the case of

“popular name” statutes that are amended frequently. On their websites, federal

agencies do not always include the current versions of the statutes they

administer, however, they may provide useful summaries and discussions of the

statutes.

•

Websites are constantly changing. The inclusion and location of information may

differ from time to time. The address or URL of a website may also change. In

addition, each website has its own search capabilities and format.

With the foregoing caveats in mind, the following are public resources for the selected statutory

materials described in this report.

Public Laws

Library of Congress - American Memory

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsllink.html

This page provides access to the Statutes at Large from the 1st Congress (1789 - 1790) to the

43rd Congress (1873 - 1874). An index is also available for the first eight volumes of the

Statutes at Large.

Library of Congress: THOMAS

http://thomas.loc.gov/

This page provides access to the full-text of public laws from the 101st Congress (1989 –

1990) to present.

GPO’s Federal Digital System

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/advanced/advsearchpage.action

This page provides access to the Statutes at Large and public and private laws from the

104th Congress (1995 - 1996) to the present. The “Advanced Search” capability enables

more than one collection to be searched at a time by adding “more search criteria.”

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Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where to Find Them

United States Code

Office of the Law Revision Counsel U.S.C.

http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml

This page provides access to the 2006 edition and its supplements. The page also links to

the previous editions and supplements.

GPO’s Federal Digital System

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/advanced/advsearchpage.action

This page provides access to the 1994 through 2006 editions and their supplements. The

“Advanced Search” capability enables more than one collection to be searched at a time by

adding “more search criteria.”

Popular Name Index

Office of the Law Revision Counsel

http://uscode.house.gov/popularnames/popularnames.htm#letterE

This page provides a list of the popular and statutory names of Acts in alphabetical order.

Other Resources

U.S. Code Classification Tables

http://uscode.house.gov/classification/tables.shtml

This page shows where recently enacted laws will appear in the United States Code and

which sections of the Code have been amended by those laws. The tables only include those

provisions of law that have been classified to the Code.

Author Contact Information

(name redacted)

Law Librarian

#redacted#@crs.loc.gov, 7-....

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