List of United States federal legislation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a partial list of notable United States federal legislation, in chronological order. At the federal level in the United States, legislation (a.k.a. "statutes" or "statutory law") consists exclusively of Acts passed by the Congress of the United States (and its predecessor, the Continental Congress), that were either signed into law by the President or subsequently passed by Congress after a presidential veto.

Each biennial Congress enacts approximately 200–300 statutes. After 109 Congresses, more than 20,000 statutes have been enacted since 1789. This list contains, therefore, only a small selection. Most of the statutes listed here have already merited an article in this encyclopedia.

Contents:
Publication of the law
Statutes at Large
Sessions and Chapters
Public Laws
United States Code
Examples


Continental Congress
Years: Congress number
1789–1801: 1 2 3 4 5 6
1801–1811: 7 8 9 10 11
1811–1821: 12 13 14 15 16
1821–1831: 17 18 19 20 21
1831–1841: 22 23 24 25 26
1841–1851: 27 28 29 30 31
1851–1861: 32 33 34 35 36
1861–1871: 37 38 39 40 41
1871–1881: 42 43 44 45 46
1881–1891: 47 48 49 50 51
1891–1901: 52 53 54 55 56
1901–1911: 57 58 59 60 61
1911–1921: 62 63 64 65 66
1921–1931: 67 68 69 70 71
1931–1941: 72 73 74 75 76
1941–1951: 77 78 79 80 81
1951–1961: 82 83 84 85 86
1961–1971: 87 88 89 90 91
1971–1981: 92 93 94 95 96
1981–1991: 97 98 99 100 101
1991–2001: 102 103 104 105 106
2001–present: 107 108 109 110
See also
Sources

Legislation is not the only source of regulations with force of law. However, most executive branch regulations must originate in a congressional grant of power. See also: Executive orders of the President; regulations of Executive branch departments and administrative agencies; and the procedural rules of the federal courts.

[edit] Publication of the law

[edit] "Statutes at Large" (Stat.)

Acts of Congress are published in the United States Statutes at Large. Volumes 1 through 18, which have all the statutes passed from 1789 to 1875, are available on-line at the Library of Congress, here. In the list below, statutes are listed by X Stat. Y, where X is the volume of the Statutes at Large and Y is the page number, as well as either the "chapter" or "Public Law" number. See example below.

[edit] "Sessions" (Sess.) and "Chapters" (ch.)

Each Congress has two to four sessions. Under the numbering system used from 1789 until 1957, the Acts in each session are numbered sequentially as "Chapters." This numbering included both laws applicable to the general public and laws relating to specific individuals, e.g., to grant pensions to disabled veterans.[1]

[edit] "Public Laws"

Since 1957, Acts of Congress related to the general public have been designated in the form: Public Law X-Y where X is the number of the ordinal Congress and Y is the number of the chronological order of the public Act in that Congress. This numbering is continuous across sessions of Congress and does not include acts relating to individuals, which are analogously given Private Law X-Y designations. (From 1901 to 1957, the Statutes at Large listed both a "chapter" and a "Public"/"Private" number for each act[2]; the Bluebook requires citation of the chapter numbers of these acts.[3]) See example below.

[edit] "United States Code"

General and permanent laws of the United States are codified into the United States Code (abbreviated here and commonly elsewhere as "U.S.C."), where they are ordered by topic rather than chronology. Where known, an external link is provided in the list below to the U.S. Code section (via the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University).

[edit] Examples

[edit] Continental Congress

[edit] 1789 to 1801

[edit] 1st United States Congress

[edit] 2nd United States Congress

[edit] 3rd United States Congress

[edit] 4th United States Congress

[edit] 5th United States Congress

[edit] 6th United States Congress

[edit] 1801 to 1811

[edit] 7th United States Congress

[edit] 8th United States Congress

[edit] 9th United States Congress

[edit] 10th United States Congress

[edit] 11th United States Congress

[edit] 1811 to 1821

[edit] 12th United States Congress

[edit] 13th United States Congress

[edit] 14th United States Congress

[edit] 15th United States Congress

[edit] 16th United States Congress

[edit] 1821 to 1831

[edit] 17th United States Congress

[edit] 18th United States Congress

[edit] 19th United States Congress

[edit] 20th United States Congress

[edit] 21st United States Congress

[edit] 1831 to 1841

[edit] 22nd United States Congress

[edit] 23rd United States Congress

[edit] 24th United States Congress

[edit] 25th United States Congress

[edit] 26th United States Congress

[edit] 1841 to 1851

[edit] 27th United States Congress

[edit] 28th United States Congress

[edit] 29th United States Congress

[edit] 30th United States Congress

[edit] 31st United States Congress

[edit] 1851 to 1861

[edit] 32nd United States Congress

[edit] 33rd United States Congress

[edit] 34th United States Congress

[edit] 35th United States Congress

[edit] 36th United States Congress

[edit] 1861 to 1871

[edit] 37th United States Congress

[edit] 38th United States Congress

[edit] 39th United States Congress

[edit] 40th United States Congress

[edit] 41st United States Congress

[edit] 1871 to 1881

[edit] 42nd United States Congress

[edit] 43rd United States Congress

[edit] 44th United States Congress

[edit] 45th United States Congress

[edit] 46th United States Congress

[edit] 1881 to 1891

[edit] 47th United States Congress

[edit] 48th United States Congress

[edit] 49th United States Congress

[edit] 50th United States Congress

[edit] 51st United States Congress

[edit] 1891 to 1901

[edit] 52nd United States Congress

[edit] 53rd United States Congress

[edit] 54th United States Congress

[edit] 55th United States Congress

[edit] 56th United States Congress

[edit] 1901 to 1911

[edit] 57th United States Congress

[edit] 58th United States Congress

[edit] 59th United States Congress

[edit] 60th United States Congress

[edit] 61st United States Congress

[edit] 1911 to 1921

[edit] 62nd United States Congress

[edit] 63rd United States Congress

[edit] 64th United States Congress

[edit] 65th United States Congress

[edit] 66th United States Congress

[edit] 1921 to 1931

[edit] 67th United States Congress

[edit] 68th United States Congress

[edit] 69th United States Congress

[edit] 70th United States Congress

[edit] 71st United States Congress

[edit] 1931 to 1941

[edit] 72nd United States Congress

[edit] 73rd United States Congress

[edit] 74th United States Congress

[edit] 75th United States Congress

[edit] 76th United States Congress

[edit] 1941 to 1951

[edit] 77th United States Congress

[edit] 78th United States Congress

[edit] 79th United States Congress

[edit] 80th United States Congress

[edit] 81st United States Congress

[edit] 1951 to 1961

[edit] 82nd United States Congress

[edit] 83rd United States Congress

[edit] 84th United States Congress

[edit] 85th United States Congress

[edit] 86th United States Congress

[edit] 1961 to 1971

[edit] 87th United States Congress

[edit] 88th United States Congress

[edit] 89th United States Congress

[edit] 90th United States Congress

[edit] 91st United States Congress

[edit] 1971 to 1981

[edit] 92nd United States Congress

[edit] 93rd United States Congress

[edit] 94th United States Congress

[edit] 95th United States Congress

[edit] 96th United States Congress

[edit] 1981 to 1991

[edit] 97th United States Congress

[edit] 98th United States Congress

[edit] 99th United States Congress

[edit] 100th United States Congress

[edit] 101st United States Congress

[edit] 1991 to 2001

[edit] 102nd United States Congress

[edit] 103rd United States Congress

[edit] 104th United States Congress

[edit] 105th United States Congress

[edit] 106th United States Congress

[edit] 2001 to present

[edit] 107th United States Congress

[edit] 108th United States Congress

[edit] 109th United States Congress

[edit] 110th United States Congress

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

[edit] References

  1. ^ See, e.g., Act of Aug. 11, 1790, ch. 44, 6 Stat. 3
  2. ^ About Bills, Resolutions, and Laws
  3. ^ Table T.1, p. 196 (18th edition).