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SW 325-Social Work Laws and Legislation: Federal Legislation

Finding Public Law

Finding Public Law

1. Go to: congress.gov Go to the Advanced Search.

2. Select all the congresses you want to review the laws for.

3. Under Legislation Types, Check Only bills that became law.

4. Search

5. Review the list to make sure they all say LAW

Public Laws by Popular Names Finding Tool

This tool helps identify the Public Law session and number of popular laws.  It also identifies the area of the U.S. Code of a particular Public Law. There are a couple of versions, these example use the office of legal revision counsel.

Here is the information you will usually find.

Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
Pub. L. 109-248, July 27, 2006,120 Stat. 587
Short title, see 34 U.S.C. 10101 note

Finding Federal Legislation (Bills)

Finding Federal Legislation (Bills)

Example 1

From the Congress.gov page, Go to Search Tools at Top

We are looking for:
H.R.5235 - To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to require States to include a photograph

Go to Advanced Search:

1. Select the congress you want, I am using 116th

2. To search by bill, you can put the number in Legislation and Law Numbers
    H.R.5235

3. You can also put the common title in the Words and Phrases, for instance supplemental nutrition assistance program this way is not exact but will bring you many other related items about nutrition bills.

Example 2

From the Congress.gov page,

Go to Search Tools at top

We are Looking for:

H.Res.236 - Supporting the goals and ideals of Social Work Month and World Social Work Day on March 16, 2021.

Advanced Search

1. Select the congress you want, I am using 117th

2. To search by bill, you can put the number in Legislation and Law Numbers
H.Res.236

Note: There is an H.Res.236 bill in both the 116th and 117th congress, this is why it is important to select the correct one.

3. You can also put the common title in the Words and Phrases, for instance

social work month

This way is not exact but will bring you many other thing, but some more or less on target why? SNAP was an actual program.

About federal session laws

The laws passed during each session of Congress are published in the United States Statutes at Large.
These federal session laws are called public laws.

The United States Statutes at Large, typically referred to as the Statutes at Large, is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress. The Statutes at Large is prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Every public and private law passed by Congress is published in the Statutes at Large in order of the date it was enacted into law. The laws are arranged by Public Law number.  For example Public Law 103-3, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, was the 3rd law passed by the 103rd Congress.  It can be cited as Public Law 103-3.  Or in LexisNexis Academic searching it is cited as 103 P.L. 3

Public laws are also cited by volume and page number that they appear in the print Statutes at Large.  For example Public Law 103-3 appears in volume 107 of the Statutues at Large on page 6.  So it can also be cited as  107 Stat. 6

Then these individual session laws such as P.L. 103-3, get incorporated into a compilation of existing law called the United State Code. The United States Code will contain those parts of an orginal law that are still in effect - along with all of the subsequent amendments to that law - to create the existing law.   A session law may be pigeon holed into several sections of the U.S. Code.  The print Statutes at Large will have entries in the margin showing the sections of the U.S. Code that a session law ends up in the U.S. Code.

Also included in the United States Statutes at Large are concurrent resolutions, proclamations by the President, proposed and ratified amendments to the Constitution, and reorganization plans.

Other federal session law resources

  • print Statutes at Large located on the 4th floor of the Malpass Library in the Legal Reference section (complete set)
  • print CIS Legislative Histories located just South of the 4th floor Gov & Legal Info reference desk (allows one to identify all bills, Congressional floor debates, and Congressional committee hearings that took place on a session law

Additional online resources: