United States Statutes at Large

Official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions

United States Statutes at Large

Title page of volume 125

Type| Session laws, official journal and treaty series
Publisher| Office of the Federal Register
Founded| 1845 (1845)
Language| English
Headquarters| United States

The United States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as the Statutes at Large and abbreviated Stat., are an official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress.

Each act and resolution of Congress is originally published as a slip law, which is classified as either public law (abbreviated Pub.L.) or private law (Pvt.L.), and designated and numbered accordingly. At the end of a congressional session, the statutes enacted during that session are compiled into bound books, known as "session law" publications. The United States Statutes at Large is the name of the session law publication for U.S. Federal statutes.[1] The public laws and private laws are numbered and organized in chronological order.[2]

U.S. Federal statutes are published in a three-part process, consisting of slip laws, session laws (Statutes at Large), and codification (United States Code).

## Codification

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Large portions of public laws are enacted as amendments to the United States Code. Once enacted into law, an Act will be published in the Statutes at Large and will add to, modify, or delete some part of the United States Code. Provisions of a public law that contain only enacting clauses, effective dates, and similar matters are not generally codified. Private laws also are not generally codified.

Some portions of the United States Code have been enacted as positive law and other portions have not been so enacted. In case of a conflict between the text of the Statutes at Large and the text of a provision of the United States Code that has not been enacted as positive law, the text of the Statutes at Large takes precedence.[3]

## History

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A few volumes of the Statutes at Large

Publication of the United States Statutes at Large began in 1845 by the private firm of Little, Brown and Company under authority of a joint resolution of Congress. During Little, Brown and Company's time as publisher, Richard Peters (Volumes 1–8), George Minot (Volumes 9–11), and George P. Sanger (Volumes 11–17) served as editors.

In 1874, Congress transferred the authority to publish the Statutes at Large to the Government Printing Office under the direction of the Secretary of State.

Pub. L. 80–278, 61 Stat. 633, was enacted July 30, 1947 and directed the Secretary of State to compile, edit, index, and publish the Statutes at Large. Pub. L. 81–821, 64 Stat. 980, was enacted September 23, 1950 and directed the Administrator of General Services to compile, edit, index, and publish the Statutes at Large. Since 1985 the Statutes at Large have been prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).[4]

Until 1948, all treaties and international agreements approved by the United States Senate were also published in the set, but these now appear in a publication titled United States Treaties and Other International Agreements, abbreviated U.S.T. In addition, the Statutes at Large includes the text of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, amendments to the Constitution, treaties with Native American nations and foreign nations, and presidential proclamations.

Sometimes very large or long Acts of Congress are published as their own "appendix" volume of the Statutes at Large. For example, the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 was published as volume 68A of the Statutes at Large (68A Stat. 3).

## See also

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* California Statutes
* Federal Register
* Laws of Florida
* Laws of Illinois
* Laws of New York
* Laws of Pennsylvania
* Procedures of the United States Congress
* Revised Statutes of the United States
* United States Reports

## Notes

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1. ^ Bast, Carol M.; Hawkins, Margie A. (2013). Foundations of Legal Research and Writing (5th ed.). Clifton Park, New York: Delmar. p. 139\. ISBN 9781285402604.
2. ^ Public and Private Laws: About, United States Government Printing Office, archived from the original on January 5, 2010, retrieved November 20, 2009, "At the end of each session of Congress, the slip laws are compiled into bound volumes called the Statutes at Large, and they are known as 'session laws.'"
3. ^ See generally 1 U.S.C. § 112.
4. ^ "Statutes at Large". U.S. Government Publishing Office. December 7, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2019.

## References

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* This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the U.S. Government Publishing Office.

## Further reading

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* How Our Laws Are Made, by the Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives (PDF).
* "Session Laws" from Federal Statutes: A Beginner's Guide at the Library of Congress

## External links

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Look up Enrolled Bill in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

United States Statutes at Large

* Volumes 1 to 64 (1789–1951) of the Statutes at Large at the Library of Congress
* Volume 65 et seq. (1951–present) of the Statutes at Large at Govinfo (U.S. Government Publishing Office)
* Volumes 1 to 18 (1789–1875) of the Statutes at Large made available by the Library of Congress American Memory collections
* Volumes 1 to 64 (1789–1951) of the Statutes at Large[usurped] made available by the Congressional Data Coalition Archived April 26, 2021, at the Wayback Machine via LEGISWORKS.org[usurped]
* Sortable by Bills Enacted into Laws, Concurrent Resolutions, Popular Names, Presidential Proclamations, or Public Laws.
* Public and private laws from 104th Congress (1995) to 2006 from the Government Printing Office, in slip law format with Statutes at Large page references
* Early United States Statutes includes Volumes 1 to 44 (1789–1927) of the Statutes at Large in DjVu and PDF format, along with rudimentary OCR of the text.
* United States Statutes and the United States Code: Historical Outlines, Notes, Lists, Tables, and Sources from the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC
* Second Edition of the Revised Statutes of the United States (1878)

* v
* t
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United States Congress

* House of Representatives
* Senate
* Joint session
* (118th → 119th → 120th)
* Lists of the United States Congress

Members and leaders

| Membership|

| Members|

* By length of service
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|

Senate|

* Members
* seniority
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House|

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New members|

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|

House|

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Ethnic and racial|

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Gender and sexual identity|

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Occupation|

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Religion|

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Related|

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Powers, privileges, procedure, committees, history, media

| Powers|

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|

Privileges|

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Procedure|

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Senate-specific|

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Committees|

* Chairman and ranking member
* Of the Whole
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Items|

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History|

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* Biographical Directory
* Divided government
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Media|

* C-SPAN
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* The Hill
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* Roll Call

Capitol Complex (Capitol Hill)

| Legislative
offices|

* Congressional staff
* Gov. Accountability Office (GAO)
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* Board
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* Congr. Budget Office (CBO)
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* Library of Congress
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* Technology Assessment

|

Offices|

| Senate|

* Curator
* Historical
* Library

|

House|

* Congr. Ethics
* Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Operations
* Interparliamentary Affairs
* Law Revision Counsel
* Legislative Counsel
* Library

Employees|

| Senate|

* Secretary
* Chaplain
* Curator
* Historian
* Librarian
* Pages
* Parliamentarian
* Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper

|

House|

* Chaplain
* Chief Administrative Officer
* Clerk
* Doorkeeper
* Floor Operations
* Floor Services Chief
* Historian
* Pages
* Board
* Parliamentarian
* Postmaster
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* Sergeant at Arms

Library of
Congress|

* Congressional Research Service
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* Copyright Office
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* THOMAS
* Adams Building
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* Madison Building

Gov.
Publishing Office|

* Public Printer
* Congressional Pictorial Directory
* Congressional Record
* Official Congressional Directory
* U.S. Gov. Manual
* Serial Set
* Statutes at Large
* United States Code

Capitol Building|

* List of artwork at the United States Capitol complex
* List of portraits in the United States House of Representatives collection (A-J)
* Brumidi Corridors
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* Crypt
* Dome
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* Rotunda
* Hall of Columns
* Statuary Hall
* Visitor Center
* The Apotheosis of Washington
* Statue of Freedom
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* Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States
* Apotheosis of Democracy
* Progress of Civilization Pediment
* First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln
* Surrender of General Burgoyne
* Surrender of Lord Cornwallis
* George Washington and the Revolutionary War Door
* Revolutionary War Door
* Columbus Doors
* Washington at Princeton
* Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way
* VP's Room
* VP Bust Collection

Office
buildings|

| Senate|

* Dirksen
* Hart
* Mountains and Clouds
* Russell

|

House|

* Building Commission
* office lottery
* Cannon
* Ford
* Longworth
* O'Neill
* Rayburn

Other
facilities|

* Botanic Garden
* Health and Fitness Facility
* House Recording Studio
* Senate chamber
* Old Senate Chamber
* Old Supreme Court Chamber
* Power Plant
* Webster Page Residence
* Subway

Related|

* Capitol Hill
* United States Capitol cornerstone laying

*[Pub. L.]: Public Law
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