Order Code RL30812
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Federal Statutes:
What They Are and
Where to Find Them
Updated September 25, 2003
Mark Gurevitz
Senior Paralegal Specialist
American Law Division
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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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 hard copy and on the Internet. When Congress passes a law, it may be
amending or repealing earlier enactments or it may be writing on a clean slate.
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. Additionally, most statutes are
also incorporated separately into the United States Code. The United States Code
(and its commercial counterparts) takes those Federal statutes that are of a general
and permanent nature and arranges them by subject into 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statutes that underlie the Code are revised, superseded, or repealed, the provisions of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.
Slip law versions of Public Laws are not widely available in hard copy form
outside Capitol Hill except at university libraries, law school libraries, or similar
depositories (though these often have slip laws in microfiche format only). They are
more readily available on the Internet. Statutes At Large is used primarily to research
the original language of statutes and laws that are not codified in the Code,
appropriations statutes and private laws, for example. 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. The Code also is readily
available on the Internet, though not always in user-friendly form.
Most significant statutes – the Social Security Act, the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act, and the Clean Air Act, for example – are published and
updated both in a stand alone version, as amended, and as they appear in the Code.
Only some, but not all, titles of the Code are the authoritative version of the “law.”
For other titles, the authoritative version of the statutes codified therein is the
underlying public law, as amended – e.g., the Immigration and Nationality Act of
1952, as amended, is the authoritative version, not title 8 of the Code.
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, where they are most readily accessible.
This report will updated
periodically.

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Contents
Public Laws and Private Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Alternative Sources of Public Laws (Hardcopy Version) . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The United States Statutes At Large . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Public Laws, as Amended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
United States Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Annotated Editions of the United States Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Federal Statutes on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Selected sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

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Federal Statutes: What They Are and Where
to Find Them
This report provides a brief overview of Federal statutes and where to find them,
both in hard copy and on the Internet. When Congress passes a law, it may be
amending or repealing earlier enactments or it may be writing on a clean slate.
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. Additionally, most statutes are also incorporated separately into the United
States Code. The United States Code (and its commercial counterparts) takes those
Federal statutes that are of a general and permanent nature and arranges them by
subject into 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 – that is, when it becomes law 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 also assigned a number
chronologically according to its order of enactment within a particular Congress (e.g.,
the tenth public law enacted in the 106th Congress was numbered as Public Law 106-
10; the tenth private law as Private Law 106-10). Private laws are enacted for the
benefit of a named individual or entity – e.g., laws in which Congress, due to
exceptional individual circumstances, provides an immigration status or government
reimbursement to a named person who would not be eligible under generally
applicable law. By contrast, public laws are of general applicability. It is the latter
category which is of most frequent concern and which forms the basis for the United
States Code. Some general laws that are not permanent and continuing in nature,
such as appropriations, are not included in the Code and must be researched in the
Public Laws/Statutes At Large format.
Each new law is first published in pamphlet form (the “slip law” version) by the
Government Printing Office (GPO). Individual “slip laws” often are difficult to find
outside Capitol Hill, though some libraries may compile them in looseleaf binders
or in microfiche collections. Recently enacted laws, especially public laws, are often
easier to find in the hardcopy compilations discussed presently, or from Internet
resources, as discussed below.
Alternative Sources of Public Laws (Hardcopy Version). The United
States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.) is a commercial
service that, among other information, publishes Public Laws chronologically in slip
law version. In addition to its annual bound volumes, U.S.C.C.A.N. issues monthly
paperbound supplements that include the texts of new enactments and selected
portions of the accompanying Senate, House, and/or conference reports. As noted

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in our discussion of the annotated versions of the Code below, both the United States
Code Service and the United States Code Annotated publish new public laws
chronologically as supplements.
The United States Statutes At Large
Slip laws (both public laws and private laws) are accumulated at the end of each
session of Congress and published in a series of bound volumes entitled Statutes At
Large. These laws are cited by volume and page; e.g., 96 Stat. 1259 refers to page
1259 of volume 96 of Statutes At Large. Researchers are most likely to resort to this
publication when they are interested in the original language of a statute or in statutes
that are not codified, such as appropriations and other temporary laws 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 (Pub.
L. 82-414, 66 Stat. 163). This law generally consolidated and amended
Federal statutory law on the admission and stay of aliens in the U.S. and how
they may become citizens. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was
codified in title 8 of the U.S. Code and comprises almost all of its contents.
! In 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
(Pub. L. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3359). Section 101 of this law, in part, contained
provisions that for the first time made it illegal to hire aliens illegally in the
U.S. The 1986 Act added these new employer sanctions to the Immigration
and Nationality Act of 1952 as a new section 274A. The new employer
sanctions, as added to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, were
codified in title 8 of the U.S. Code as a new section 1324a (8 U.S.C. § 1324a).
! In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-208 (Division C), 110 Stat. 3009).
Section 412 of the 1996 Act amended the employer sanctions process an
employer must undergo to verify that a new employee is not an illegal alien.
As with the 1986 Act, the 1996 Act makes its changes by expressly amending
the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 – section 274A in this case –
with the corresponding section being changed in title 8 of the U.S. Code
(section 1324a) noted parenthetically.
As the above sequence illustrates, the canvass upon which Congress works is
often an updated, stand-alone version of an earlier public law (e.g. the Immigration
and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended), and not the U.S. Code. The reason for this
is evidenced by the list of the titles of the U.S. Code contained after the title page in
each Code volume. An asterisk appears next to some, but not all, of the titles. The
asterisks refer to a note that states: “This title has been enacted as law.” In other
words, unless a title is asterisked, the authoritative version of the statutory material
codified therein – the “positive law” – is represented in the freestanding public laws,
as amended. The provisions of the Code in these titles are technically only evidence
of the “law.” For example, there is no asterisk beside Title 42 of the U.S. Code in

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the title list; thus the provisions codified in Title 42 are not authoritative. Rather, the
many public laws, as amended, that are codified there are – e.g., the Social Security
Act (as amended), the Public Health Service Act (as amended), the Head Start Act
(as amended), the Clean Air Act (as amended), etc.
The legislative sequence above also indicates that current versions of law
represented in the titles without asterisks may be found in one of two places: the
codified version in the current U.S. Code and the amended version of the underlying
public laws. For instance, current law on employer sanctions, illustrated above,
cannot be found in the Immigration and Nationality Act as first enacted (in either slip
law or Statutes At Large form) or in any single public law that subsequently amended
it.
Of the two places where current law may be found in these cases, legal and
policy experts most commonly refer to the public law, as amended, version – e.g., the
Social Security Act, as amended – and not to the codified counterparts of its
provisions.
However, 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. However, the frequency of these prints varies and they are often
difficult to obtain. Alternatively, various commercial publishers print updated
versions of major public laws. Also, the amended versions of major public laws can
sometimes be found via the Internet, as is discussed further below.
United States Code
The first edition of the United States Code [U.S.C.] appeared in 1926. It is now
published every 6 years and supplemented during the intervals by annual cumulative
bound volumes. The latest edition is the 1994 edition. The U.S.C. is printed by the
United States Government Printing Office.
Those statutes that are included in the Code are grouped by subject into fifty
titles. Each title is further organized into chapters, sections and subsections, again
by subject matter.
The Code is cited by title and section, e.g., 28 U.S.C. Sec. (Or §) 534 refers to
section 534 of Title 28 of the United States Code.
Each volume of the U.S.C. contains a listing of its titles, whose names provide
general guidance as to their contents. For example, Title 7 deals with agriculture, and
Title 45 with railroads. However, this is only general guidance, since legislation on
broad topics is frequently scattered throughout several titles of the Code.
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.

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Annotated Editions of the United States Code. The United States Code
Annotated (U.S.C.A.) and the United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.) are unofficial,
privately published editions of the United States Code, published by West Publishing
Company and Lawyer’s Co-operative Publishing Company, respectively. The major
additional features of these publications include annotations to judicial decisions
interpreting the Code sections and references to pertinent sections in the Code of
Federal Regulations (C.F.R.). The main distinction is that the U.S.C.A. purports to
include all annotations, so that a single volume may encompass only two or three
Code sections, while the U.S.C.S. provides more selective but more detailed
annotations, and also includes references to some law review articles.
Bound volumes of the U.S.C.A. and the U.S.C.S. are brought up to date through
use of annual inserts, known as “pocket parts,” and more frequent paperbound
supplements. These updates include newly codified laws and new annotations. Both
U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S. also issue pamphlets containing copies of recently enacted
laws arranged in chronological order.
Since there is frequently a time lag in
publishing the United States Code, codified versions of new enactments usually
appear first in U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S. supplements.
Additionally, versions of the finding aids discussed below are also available in
the U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S.
General Subject Index. Each edition of the United States Code has a
comprehensive subject matter index, under which it is possible to research laws by
subject matter. Assuming one wished to locate the provision of law establishing a
review committee for farm marketing quotas. Using the index under the term “farm
marketing quotas,” one is referred to several other subject headings, including the
Agricultural Adjustment Assistance Act of 1938. Turning to that heading and
looking under the subheading “farm marketing quotas,” there is a reference to a
“committee for review” codified at 7 U.S.C. § 1363.
Popular Name Table. Each edition of the Code also has a Popular Name
Table, “Acts Cited by Popular Name,” through which it is possible to obtain
information (Public Law number, location in the Statutes At Large, location in the
United States Code) on laws by checking the names by which they are commonly
known. If the original laws have been amended, the same information is provided
for each amendment. To illustrate, assume we are interested in locating the “Special
Drawing Rights Act” in the United States Code. Looking at the Popular Names
Table, we find that it has been codified at 22 U.S.C. § 286q.
Statutes at Large Table. By showing the relationship between public laws,
the Statutes At Large, and the United States Code, the Statutes at Large table for the
Code is one of the most useful statutory research tools. Thus a researcher who has
either a public law number or a Statutes at Large citation can use this table to
ascertain where that law is or was codified, as well as its present status.
It is particularly useful when the researcher is interested in one section of a law
that contains many sections, since it is possible to use this table to find where
individual sections of a public law have been codified. For purposes of illustration
suppose that we were interested in finding where § 1403 of Public law No. 99-661

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has been placed in the U.S. Code. Through the Statutes At Large table, we can
determine that it can be found at 20 U.S.C. § 4702.
Federal Statutes on the Internet
The Internet has made legal resources, including Federal statutes, more widely
available to both scholars and the general public. Still, one must use care in
obtaining 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.
! However extensive Internet materials may be, it still may be difficult to find
current federal statutes, especially in the case of “popular name” statutes that
are amended frequently. Not all Federal agencies include current versions of
the statutes they administer on their websites. At the same time, many
agencies that do not include the full text of the statutes that govern their
programs do provide useful summaries and discussions of them.
! As is the case with other Internet materials, the inclusiveness and location of
statutory materials on a given website may change frequently. Also, websites
clearly vary in the ease of finding materials through them.
Selected sites. With the foregoing caveats in mind, we include the sites
below as possible public sources for the selected statutory materials noted.
Public laws:
Thomas Public Laws [http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d108/d108laws.html]
GPO Public Laws [http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/publaw/108publ.html]
U.S.C.:
Office of Law Revision Counsel U.S.C. page [http://uscode.house.gov/uscode.htm]
Cornell Law School U.S.C. page [http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/]
GPO U.S.C. [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html]
Popular Name:
Cornell Law School Popular Name Index
[http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/topn/]

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