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us code

The United States Code is a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It generally contains only those Acts of Congress known as public laws (although the notes sometimes contain related Executive Orders and other presidential documents). The U.S. Code does not contain statutes known as private laws, or time limited legislation, such as most appropriation acts or budget laws, which apply only for a single fiscal year. Nor does it contain regulations adopted by executive agencies through the rulemaking process set out in the Administrative Procedure Act. These regulations are published chronologically in the Federal Register and are then compiled by topic or subject matter in the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.), which constitutes an additional important source of federal law.

The Code is maintained by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (LRC) of the U.S. House of Representatives. The LRC determines which statutes should be codified, and which existing laws are affected by amendments or repeals, or have simply expired by their own terms. The Code therefore is primarily the result of efforts to make finding relevant and effective statutes simpler by reorganizing them by subject matter, and eliminating expired and amended sections.

The Code is divided into 50 titles, which deal with broad, logically organized areas of legislation. The word "title" in this context is roughly akin to a printed "volume," although many of the larger titles span multiple volumes. Similarly, no particular size or length is associated with other subdivisions; a section might run several pages in print, or just a sentence or two.

Additionally, titles may optionally be divided into subtitles, parts, subparts, chapters, and subchapters. All titles have sections (represented by a §), as their smallest basic coherent unit, though sections are often divided into subsections, paragraphs, and clauses. Not all titles use the same series of subdivisions above the section level, and they may arrange them in different order.
While every effort has been made to ensure that links to the United States Code database on the web is accurate, those using it for legal research should verify their results against the printed version of the Code available through the Government Printing Office.

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