Law Resources: Finding United States Statutes

Before you start, you need to decide what you're looking for:

The text and status of a bill currently before Congress
The text of an act as it was passed by Congress OR
The law as it is currently in effect, complete with changes that may have been made since the law was enacted

Read What is statutory law? for help deciding.

Finding the current status and text of a bill:

CQ Weekly Reports
Used the Advanced Search.
Lexis-Nexis Congressional Universe
Select Legislative Histories, Bills, and Laws. 1989+ (101st Congress).
THOMAS: Bill Summary and Status
Searchable by keyword, sponsor, bill number, etc. Current Congress.

These sources contain the text of laws as they were passed by Congress. For the law as it currently stands, with amendments since passage, see the U.S. Code section below.

Lexis-Nexis Congressional Universe
Select Legislative Histories, Bills, and Laws. Keyword searching is the default. To search by PL or Stat. citation, select Get a Document. 1988+ (100th Congress).
Westlaw
Use the Shortcuts box to search by PL or Stat. citation. Keyword searching doesn't work for PLs.
THOMAS: Public Laws
Searchable by public law number. 101st Congress+
GPO Access Public Laws
1995+ (104th Congress).

Finding laws in the U.S. Code (USC):

The U.S. Code is a subject arrangement of laws passed by Congress. It also shows the law as it is currently in effect (i.e. with amendments since its passage).

Lexis-Nexis Congressional Universe
Select Legislative Histories, Bills, and Laws. Keyword searching is the default. To search by USC citation, select Get a Document. Select US Code from the pull-down menu.
Westlaw
Search by subject, and don't forget the quotation marks around phrases (ex. "intellectual property"). Note that Westlaw uses the West commercial version of the Code, U.S. Code Annotated. The text of the law remains the same, but USCA contains case notes and comments concerning the application of the law.
GPO Access

This is the main screen of CQ Weekly Reports. Click on Advanced Search (circled in red on the image below).

This is the Advanced Search screen which you can use to search for bill status.

This is the main screen of Lexis Nexis Congressional Universe. Click on Legislative Histories, etc. circled in red on the image below.

The Legislative History, etc. search page allows you to check bill status, or search for Public Laws of U.S. Code sections by subject.

Clicking on Get A Document allows you to search for Public Laws by PL number, Statutes at Large citation, or orignial bill number.

Selecting U.S. Code from the pull-down menu allows you to search by USC citation.

This is a close-up of the Shortcuts box in Westlaw. You can use it to search for Public Laws by PL number or Statutes at Large citation.

You can also search the U.S. Code by subject in Westlaw. Type your search in the Search box and then scroll down, as indicated by the red arrow, until you see the Unites States Code Annotated box. Click in the box and scroll back up to Search.

Susan Clerc
Reference Librarian

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