FW ECOL 515: Natural Resources Policy (Fall 2023) : Federal laws

In Regulatory Insight or Legislative Insight...

In regulatory histories in Regulatory Insight and legislative histories in Legislative Insight, there will likely be links to the laws in their "slip law" forms.

When Congress passes a law, it is first published in “slip” form, as a stand-alone publication.

A citation to a slip law looks like this:  P.L.95-632

Other places to find public laws (slip laws)

If you don't see a link to a public law in Regulatory Insight or Legislative Insight, you can check...

"Public and Private Laws" collection in Govinfo.gov

• Available FOR FREE to the general public.
• Official electronic version, from the Government Publishing Office.
• Covers 104th Congress (1995-96) to present day.
• "Public and Private Laws" is one collection in the larger Govinfo.gov database.  To search just Public and Private Laws, from the Govinfo.gov main page:
  1. Click the advanced tab above the search box.
  2. Click the box next to Public and Private Laws under Refine by Collection  You will have to scroll down the list a ways.
  3. Type a search term in the second box under Search In.
  4. Click Search.
• You can also search by citation.  From the Govinfo.gov main page:
  1. Click the citation tab above the search box.
  2. Click Select a Collection and select Public and Private Laws.
  3. Click Select Type and select Public or Private, depending on which kind of law you're searching.
  4. Click Select Congress and select the Congress that passed the law.
  5. Click in the box that says number and type the number of the law.
  6. Click Search.
• Help for using the Public and Private Laws from Govinfo.gov

Statutes at Large

A few years after each congressional session, the slip laws are accumulated chronologically in the Statutes at Large. Statutes at Large contains the text of all public and private laws, joint and concurrent resolutions passed during each single-year congressional session. 

A citation to a law in the Statutes at Large looks like this: 92 Stat 3752.

Where to find statutes

Hein Online U.S. Statutes at Large

• Subscription database; available on- and off-campus to UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.

• Can search the full text of laws (use the box at the top of the screen) or browse by volume, public law number, or popular name.

• Covers 1789-2016 (114th Congress).

"Statutes at Large" collection in Govinfo.gov

• Available FOR FREE to the general public.

• Official electronic version, from the Government Publishing Office.

• Covers 1951-2013 (113th Congress).

• Statutes at Large is one title/collection in the larger Govinfo.gov database.  To search just Statutes at Large, from the Govinfo.gov main page:

  1. Click the advanced tab.

  2. Click the box next to Statutes at Large under Refine by Collection.  You will have to scroll down the list a ways.

  3. Type a search term in the second box under Search In.

  4. Click Search.

• You can also search by citation.  From the Govinfo.gov main page:

  1. Click the citation tab above the search box.

  2. Click Select a Collection and select Statutes at Large.

  3. Click Select Volume and select a volume.

  4. Click in the box that says number and type the page number.

  5. Click Search.

• Help for using the Statutes at Large from Govinfo.gov

United States Code

Eventually, a statute gets incorporated into the current body of law, the U.S. Code (USC), which is published every six years.  The process is called codification.

A citation to the United States Code looks like this:  16 USC 1532(16)

Not all versions of the Code list the sections right away; they may include chapter numbers.

The U.S. government has created several guides explaining (briefly) how laws are made:

•  How Laws Are Made, from USA.gov /
• How Laws Are Made (aka Tracking a Bill From Beginning to End) from Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government: a bit more detailed description of the process.
• Ben's Guide also has a glossary called How Laws are Made: The Language of the Law.