This is a chronological, but still incomplete, list of United States federal legislation. Congress has enacted approximately 200–600 statutes during each of its 115 biennial terms so that more than 30,000 statutes have been enacted since 1789. At the federal level in the United States,

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

(i.e., " statutes" or "

statutory law Statutory law or statute law is written law passed by a body of legislature. This is opposed to oral or customary law; or regulatory law promulgated by the executive or common law of the judiciary. Statutes may originate with national, stat ...

") consists exclusively of Acts passed by the

Congress of the United States The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Wash ...

and its predecessor, the Continental Congress, that were either signed into law by the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

or passed by Congress after a

presidential veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto po ...

. Legislation is not the only source of regulations with the

force of law In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a p ...

. However, most executive branch and

judicial branch The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

regulations must originate in a congressional grant of power. ''See also'':

Executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

s issued by the President; '' Code of Federal Regulations'' for rules issued by executive branch departments and administrative agencies; and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure of the federal courts.

Publication of the law

Statutes at Large (Stat.)

Acts of Congress An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called private laws), or to the general public ( public laws). For a bill to become an act, the text must pass through both house ...

are published in the

United States Statutes at Large The ''United States Statutes at Large'', commonly referred to as the ''Statutes at Large'' and abbreviated Stat., are an official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress. Each act and resolut ...

. 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

examples Example may refer to: * '' exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example" * .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet ** example.com, example.net, example.org, e ...

below.''

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.See, e.g., Act of Aug. 11, 1790, ch. 44,

Examples

* The

Militia Act of 1862 The Militia Act of 1862 (, enacted July 17, 1862) was an Act of the 37th United States Congress, during the American Civil War, that authorized a militia draft within a state when the state could not meet its quota with volunteers. The Act, fo ...

of July 17, 1862, Sess. 2, ch. 201, was the 201st Act of the second session of the 37th Congress. * The

National Banking Act The National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 were two United States federal banking acts that established a system of national banks, and created the United States National Banking System. They encouraged development of a national currency backed by ...

of February 25, 1863, Sess. 3, ch. 58, was the 58th Act of the third session of the 37th Congress. * The Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 of October 16, 2004, , , was the 332nd Act of Congress (statute) passed in the 108th Congress. It can be found in volume 118 of the U.S. Statutes at Large, starting at page 1282. * The

Help America Vote Act The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (), or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002.United States Department of Justice Civil Rights ...

of October 29, 2002, , , was the 252nd Act of the 107th Congress. It can be found in volume 116 of the U.S. Statutes at Large, starting at page 1666.

Congress of the Confederation

* September 22, 1783:

Confederation Congress Proclamation of 1783 Confederation Congress Proclamation of 1783 was a proclamation by the Congress of the Confederation dated September 22, 1783 prohibiting the extinguishment of aboriginal title in the United States without the consent of the federal government.25 ...

* April 23, 1784:

Land Ordinance of 1784 The Ordinance of 1784 (enacted April 23, 1784) called for the land in the recently created United States which was located west of the Appalachian Mountains, north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River to be divided into separate s ...

* May 21, 1785: Land Ordinance of 1785 * July 13, 1787: Ordinance of 1787: The Northwest Territorial Government ("Northwest Ordinance")

United States Congress

1789 to 1901: 1st through 56th Congresses

1901 to 2001: 57th through 106th Congresses

2001 to present: 107th and subsequent Congresses

** Defense: United States Department of Defense#Related legislation ** Drugs: Office of National Drug Control Policy#Legislation and executive orders ** Energy: United States Department of Energy#Related legislation and Energy law#Federal laws **Environment: United States Environmental Protection Agency#Related legislation ** Health and Human Services: United States Department of Health and Human Services#Related legislation ** Judiciary: Judiciary Act (disambiguation) ** Labor: United States Department of Labor#Related legislation ** Slavery:

Slave Trade Act Slave Trade Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States that relates to the slave trade. The "See also" section lists other Slave Acts, laws, and international conventions which developed the conce ...

s ** Social Security:

List of Social Security legislation (United States) * 1935 - Social Security Act">List of United States federal legislation--> * 1935 - Social Security Act, * 1939 - Social Security Amendments of 1939, * 1942 - Revenue Act of 1942, * 1943 - * 1943 - Revenue Act of 1943, * 1945 - Federal Insur ...

** Taxation: List of tariffs, :Template:US tax acts, and :United States federal taxation legislation ** Transportation: United States Department of Transportation#Related legislation ** Veterans Affairs: United States Department of Veterans Affairs#Related legislation ** Water Resources, Navigation, Environmental Regulation: United States Army Corps of Engineers#Public Laws affecting the Corps of Engineers (partial)

Sources

Acts listed by popular name
via Cornell University * Statutes at Large *

via Library of Congress *
Volumes 19 through 64, 1875-1950
via Library of Congress *
Volumes 65 through 127, 1951-2013
via Government Publishing Office * Public laws *
93rd Congress through current Congress
via Congress.gov * U.S. Code *
U.S. Code
via Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives *
U.S. Code
via Cornell University *
U.S. Code
via the U.S. Government Publishing Office *

via FindLaw.com *Brian K. Landsberg (ed), ''Major Acts of Congress''. MacMillan Reference Books (December 2003)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:United States federal legislation

Legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

Federal legislation