 Title page of volume 125 | |
| Type | Session laws,official journal andtreaty series |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Office of the Federal Register |
| Founded | 1845 (1845) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | United States |
TheUnited States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as theStatutes at Large and abbreviatedStat., are an official record ofActs of Congress andconcurrent resolutions passed by theUnited States Congress.
Each act and resolution of Congress is originally published as aslip law, which is classified as eitherpublic law (abbreviated Pub.L.) orprivate 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. TheUnited 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), andcodification (United States Code).
Large portions of public laws are enacted as amendments to theUnited States Code. Once enacted into law, an Act will be published in theStatutes 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 generallycodified. Private laws also are not generally codified.
Some portions of the United States Code have been enacted aspositive law and other portions have not been so enacted. In case of a conflict between the text of theStatutes at Large and the text of a provision of the United States Code that has not been enacted as positive law, the text of theStatutes at Large takes precedence.[3]
Publication of theUnited States Statutes at Large began in 1845 by the private firm ofLittle, Brown and Company under authority of ajoint resolution of Congress. During Little, Brown and Company's time as publisher,Richard Peters (Volumes 1–8),George Minot (Volumes 9–11), andGeorge P. Sanger (Volumes 11–17) served as editors.
In 1874, Congress transferred the authority to publish theStatutes at Large to theGovernment 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 theStatutes at Large.Pub. L. 81–821, 64 Stat. 980, was enacted September 23, 1950 and directed theadministrator of general services to compile, edit, index, and publish theStatutes at Large. Since 1985 theStatutes at Large have been prepared and published by theOffice of the Federal Register (OFR) of theNational Archives and Records Administration (NARA).[4]
Until 1948, alltreaties andinternational agreements approved by theUnited States Senate were also published in the set, but these now appear in a publication titledUnited States Treaties and Other International Agreements, abbreviatedU.S.T. In addition, theStatutes at Large includes the text of theDeclaration of Independence,Articles of Confederation, theConstitution,amendments to the Constitution, treaties withNative American nations and foreign nations, andpresidential proclamations.
Sometimes very large or long acts of Congress are published as their own "appendix" volume of theStatutes at Large. For example, theInternal Revenue Code of 1954 was published as volume 68A of theStatutes at Large (68A Stat. 3).
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.'
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theU.S. Government Publishing Office.