Statute Compilations

Statute Compilations

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About Statute Compilations

What are they?

In coordination with the Senate Office of the Legislative Counsel, the House Office of the Legislative Counsel maintains a corpus of Statute Compilations of public laws that either do not appear in the U.S. Code or that have been classified to a title of the U.S. Code that has not been enacted into positive law. Each Statute Compilation incorporates the amendments made to the underlying statute since it was originally enacted.

United States Code classification tables, maintained by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, show where recently enacted laws will appear in the U.S. Code and which sections of the Code have been amended by those laws.

When legislation cites or amends a statutory provision that is not part of a positive law title of the U.S. Code, the citation or amendment must be to the underlying statute, not to the U.S. Code. Statute Compilations are a useful drafting aid in these circumstances.

Unofficial documents: These compilations of public laws, as amended, are unofficial documents and should not be cited as legal evidence of the law. While these publications do not represent an official version of any Federal statute, substantial efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of its contents. The official version of Federal law is found in the United States Statutes at Large and in the United States Code. The legal effect to be given to the Statutes at Large and the United States Code is established by statute (1 U.S.C. 112, 204).

Corrections: If you notice an error(s) in a Statute Compilation that Congress did not enact erroneously into law (e.g. the word “Comissioner” is misspelled in the enacted statute), then please contact the House Office of the Legislative Counsel at [email protected]. and indicate where exactly you believe an error occurs within the Act along with the nature of the error (i.e. typo, missing amendment(s), erroneous execution of amendment(s), etc.). If applicable, also including details of a particular public law in which the error was introduced would be helpful and appreciated.

What is available?

Statute Compilations in this collection represent select Federal law as originally enacted in the Statutes at Large version plus the execution of amendments made to them by subsequently enacted public laws, (if any).

Currency: Statute Compilations in this collection are updated as new public laws are enacted that amend the underlying statute since it was originally enacted. Only the most recent version of the compilation is available for download, but previous versions are retained in the GovInfo preservation repository.

• Overall currency note: The overall currency note above specifies a more recent public law number which indicates a given release point that the House Office of Legislative Counsel has processed and published updates to Statute Compilations through that given public law number.
• Individual currency notes: Each Statute Compilation also has an individual currency note printed on the first page that states: “This publication is a compilation of the text of Public Law (number). It was last amended by the public law listed in the As Amended Through note above and below at the bottom of each page of the PDF version and reflects current law through the date of the enactment of the public law listed above.” The "As Amended Through" note in each compilation indicates the most recently enacted public law that amended the provisions compiled.
• Compilations not yet amended: Since the 112th Congress and moving forward, new Statute Compilations are created for each newly enacted public law. Therefore, you may find a Compilation that has identical language as the original text of the enacted public law as the Compilation has not been amended by a subsequent law. These Compilations (and others preceding the 112th Congress) have a note at the top stating they have not been amended.

Partial Compilations: Prior to the 112th Congress, Compilations were often created for only a certain title or section of a law (in some cases, other titles or sections of that law were maintained in a separate Compilation), or Compilations were created to include only the freestanding provisions of a law, excluding any amendatory provisions (in some cases, the omitted amendments were executed in a separate Compilation). Where one or more entire levels were omitted from a Compilation, you will see a line of asterisks in the Compilation.

In this example of a partial Statute Compilation (right), the title specifies the section and title of the Act that are included in this Compilation and the inclusion of asterisks indicates omitted text.

Amendatory Provisions: Unlike Statute Compilations that precede the 112th Congress, the entire Act (or legislative text including amendments made to existing law) appear in these newer Statute Compilations. Note, that the amendments to existing law have been carried out to their respective Statute Compilation. See that version of the Statute Compilation for the current state of such Act, if such statute is included in this collection.

Merged Compilations: The Public Health Service Act and the Social Security Act compilations are divided into multiple files by title numbers. For example, Social Security Act-TITLE I is accessed separately from Social Security Act-TITLE II. The separate files are listed together in order on the Statute Compilations browse page.

Compilations published as Committee Prints: Periodically, certain Statute Compilations are published as Congressional Committee Prints, which is a separate collection on GovInfo. The overall currency note above does not apply to the Compilations in the Committee Prints collection. You will need to reference the “as amended through” note on each individual Compilation in the Committee Prints collection to determine its currency.

For example, this compilation published as a Committee Print (PDF) clearly indicates it is a "COMMITTEE PRINT" and the amended through note states: "Compilation of the Social Security Laws Including the Social Security Act, As Amended, and Related Enactments Through January 1, 2009". Therefore, this Compilation reflects current law only through January 1, 2009.

Searching Statute Compilations

You can find and search Statute Compilations by:

• Using Basic Search for keyword and metadata fielded searches,
• Using Advanced Search fields specific to the Statute Compilations will display after you select Statute Compilations in the Refine by Collection column,
• Refining search results by clicking on filters in the Refine Your Search panel on the left side of the search results page (the filters under Refine Your Search correspond to the metadata available for the documents), and
• Browsing the Statute Compilations browse page.

General GovInfo Search Tips

Search Tips and Examples

Titles: The display title for each Statute Compilation in Browse and on Details pages could be only one of several short titles by which the law or portion thereof may be cited, and compilations may include provisions in addition to that indicated by the display title. Compilations can be searched by any of the titles in the metadata for a compilation including the original title which precedes the enacting clause.

Please note that some short titles may exist in the metadata for a compilation that does not actually include those provisions (see note above regarding Partial Compilations).

Search using the title field – If a keyword search returns too many results for a title query, try searching in the title field. For example, to locate the Community Services Block Grant Act:

• Using Basic Search, enter: title:(Community Services Block Grant Act) and on the left side of the Search Results under Refine Your Search, click on the Statute Compilations collection, which returns results that includes that Act even though the display title begins with the Head Start Act. The image below shows the resulting view.

• Using Advanced Search, select Statute Compilations under the Refine by Collection heading to narrow the scope of the results. Then under the heading Search In select Title in the drop-down menu and enter Community Services Block Grant Act in the second box. Click the Search button below Refine by Collection. The search results may include a different short title or Act name; but, it will likely include the short title that was included in the search box also. See example Advanced Search form.

Search by short title or original title – For example, the compilation for the Homeland Security Act of 2002 can be found with any of the following searches:

• Homeland Security Act of 2002 – This is the short title displayed at the top of the PDF, in search results, on the Details page, and in Browse.
• Critical Infrastructure Information Act of 2002 – This is the short title by which Subtitle B of title XXII (Section 2221) of the compilation of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 can be cited.
• To establish the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. – This is the original title of the Act (scroll to result or narrow search by selecting Statute Compilations under the Collection filter).

Search by Public Law Citation – Select compilations have Public Law citations that, where available, reference the compilation's original Public Law number (before amended). You can search applicable compilations by this Public Law citation. For example, a search for plawcitation:(Public Law 107-296) returns the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

General keyword search – Unless using field operators, the basic search looks for your query in the full text and metadata of every publication in the system. When conducting a general keyword search, you may find it helpful to refine results by Statute Compilations under the Collection filter to the left of search results or add quotation marks around your search terms. See example.

Limit search to Statute Compilations collection:

• Conduct a basic search and include collection:comps in the query. See example.
• Using Advanced Search, select Statute Compilations under the Refine by Collection box.
• Conduct a basic search then refine by Statute Compilations under the Collection filter to the left of search results. See example.
• Conduct an advanced search and select Statute Compilations under Refine by Collection. See example.
• Try conducting a basic search and adding the word compilation to the query. See example.

Sample Statute Compilations URLs

GovInfo uses the package ID to construct predictable URLs to documents and Details pages for individual Statute Compilations.

Details Page for a Statute Compilation

Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/{Package ID}

Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/COMPS-973

PDF File for a Statute Compilation

Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/pdf/{Package ID}.pdf

Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-973/pdf/COMPS-973.pdf

USLM File for a Statute Compilation

Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/uslm/{Package ID}.xml

Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-16119/uslm/COMPS-16119.xml

Statute Compilations Metadata Fields and Values

Metadata fields and values can be used to increase the relevancy of your searches. Metadata fields and values are used throughout GovInfo for

• Narrowing Your Search,
• Browsing Government Publications,
• Field Operators,
• Advanced Search, and
• Display on Details Pages.

Metadata fields and values can be entered into the Basic Search box using field operators. The field operators available for the Statute Compilations are listed in the table below, along with examples for each metadata field. Using Field Operators

Some of these metadata fields are made available for use in Advanced Search. The metadata values can be entered in the same format for the fields available on the Advanced Search Page. Using Advanced Search