List of United States federal legislation

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This is a chronological, but still incomplete, list of United States federal legislation. Congress
has enacted approximately 200600 statutes during each of its 112 biennial terms, so that more
than 20,000 statutes have been enacted since 1789.
At the federal level in the United States, legislation (i.e., "statutes" or "statutory law") consists
exclusively of Acts passed by the Congress of the United States and its predecessor, the
Continental Congress, that were either signed into law by the President or passed by Congress
after a presidential veto.
Legislation is not the only source of regulations with the force of law. However, most executive
branch and Judicial Branch[citation needed] regulations must originate in a congressional grant of
power. See also: Executive orders of the President; regulations of Executive branch departments
and administrative agencies; and the procedural rules of the federal courts.

Contents

1 Publication of the law

o 1.1 Statutes at Large (Stat.)
o 1.2 Sessions (Sess.) and Chapters (ch.)
o 1.3 Public laws
o 1.4 Examples

2 Congress of the Confederation

3 1789 to 1901: 1st through 56th Congresses

4 1901 to 2001: 57th through 106th Congresses

5 2001 to present: 107th and subsequent Congresses

6 See also

7 Sources

8 References

Publication of the law

Statutes at Large (Stat.)
Acts of Congress are published in the United States Statutes at Large. Volumes 1 through 18,
which have all the statutes passed from 1789 to 1875, are available on-line at the Library of
Congress, here. In the list below, statutes are listed by X Stat. Y, where X is the volume of the
Statutes at Large and Y is the page number, as well as either the chapter or Public Law number.
See examples below.

Sessions (Sess.) and Chapters (ch.)

Each Congress has two to four sessions. Under the numbering system used from 1789 until 1957,
the Acts in each session are numbered sequentially as Chapters. This numbering included both
laws applicable to the general public and laws relating to specific individuals, e.g., to grant
pensions to disabled veterans.[1]

Public laws
Since 1957, Acts of Congress related to the general public have been designated in the form:
Public Law X-Y where X is the number of the ordinal Congress and Y is the number of the
chronological order of the public Act in that Congress. This numbering is continuous across
sessions of Congress and does not include acts relating to individuals, which are analogously
given Private Law X-Y designations. (From 1901 to 1957, the Statutes at Large listed both a
chapter and a Public/Private number for each act[2]) See examples below.

Examples

The Militia Act of 1862 of July 17, 1862, Sess. 2, ch. 201, was the 201st Act of the
second session of the 37th Congress.

The National Banking Act of February 25, 1863, Sess. 3, ch. 58, was the 58th Act of the
third session of the 37th Congress.

The Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 of October 16, 2004, Pub.L. 108332,
118 Stat. 1282, was the 332nd Act of Congress (statute) passed in the 108th Congress. It
can be found in volume 118 of the U.S. Statutes at Large, starting at page 1282.

The Help America Vote Act of October 29, 2002, Pub.L. 107252, 116 Stat. 1666, was
the 252nd Act of the 107th Congress. It can be found in volume 116 of the U.S. Statutes
at Large, starting at page 1666.

Congress of the Confederation

September 22, 1783: Confederation Congress Proclamation of 1783

April 23, 1784: Land Ordinance of 1784

May 21, 1785: Land Ordinance of 1785

July 13, 1787: Ordinance of 1787: The Northwest Territorial Government ("Northwest
Ordinance")

1789 to 1901: 1st through 56th Congresses

Main article: List of United States federal legislation, 1789-1901

1901 to 2001: 57th through 106th Congresses

Main article: List of United States federal legislation, 1901-2001

2001 to present: 107th and subsequent Congresses

Main article: List of United States federal legislation, 2001-present

See also

List of sources of law in the United States

List of Uniform Acts (United States)

Lists by subject
o Agriculture: United States Department of Agriculture#Related legislation
o Civil Rights: Civil Rights Act (disambiguation)
o Defense: United States Department of Defense#Related legislation
o Drugs: Office of National Drug Control Policy#Legislation and executive orders

o Energy: United States Department of Energy#Related legislation and

Energy_law#Federal_laws
o Health and Human Services: United States Department of Health and Human
Services#Related legislation
o Judiciary: Judiciary Act (disambiguation)
o Labor: United States Department of Labor#Related legislation
o Social Security: List of Social Security legislation (United States)
o Taxation: List of tariffs, Template:US tax acts, and Category:United States federal
taxation legislation
o Transportation: United States Department of Transportation#Related legislation
o Veterans Affairs: United States Department of Veterans Affairs#Related
legislation
o Water Resources, Navigation, Environmental Regulation: United States Army
Corps of Engineers#Public Laws affecting the Corps of Engineers (partial)

Sources

Acts listed by popular name, via Cornell University

Statutes at Large
o Volumes 1 through 18, 17891875, via Library of Congress

Public laws
o Current Congress only, via the U.S. Government Printing Office
o 104th Congress through current Congress, via the U.S. Government Printing
Office

U.S. Code
o U.S. Code, via Cornell University
o U.S. Code, via the U.S. Government Printing Office

o U.S. Code, via FindLaw.com

Brian K. Landsberg (ed), Major Acts of Congress. MacMillan Reference Books

(December 2003) ISBN 0-02-865749-7

References
1.

Jump up ^ See, e.g., Act of Aug. 11, 1790, ch. 44, 6 Stat. 3

2.

Jump up ^ About Bills, Resolutions, and Laws