This 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. and its commercial counterparts, United States Code Service ( U.S.C.S.) , 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 As the statutes that underlie the Code are revised, superseded, or repealed, the provisions of the Code are updated to reflect these changes. compiles and publishes public laws chronologically in their slip law version. 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 . If the title is asterisked, the Code provides the authoritative version of the public law, as amended. Should there be a discrepancy, a court will accept the language in the Statutes at Large as the authoritative source and not the Code . In addition, the amended versions of some major public laws can be found on the Internet. United States Code

The United States Code (U.S.C.) is the official government codification of federal legislation. This reference also provides the public law number and the citations to the Statutes at Large , U.S.C ., and their amendments. Finding Federal Statutes on the Internet

Legal resources, including federal statutes, are widely available to both scholars and the general public through the Internet.
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.