Data Sources & Coverage
US Codex provides an addressable, cross-linked reading edition of federal statutory and regulatory law. All texts are retrieved directly from official government publishers, including the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, the Government Publishing Office, the National Archives, and the Office of the Federal Register.
Historical Coverage Across Corpora
The timeline below illustrates the chronological range of each legal corpus available on US Codex. For the United States Code, note the 2013 transition from annual historical archive snapshots to modern, granular release points published as new public laws are enacted.
Dataset Spans by Legal Corpus (1994 – Present)
Official electronic publication ranges and update granularity
Why Doesn't the Data Go Back Further?
Legal researchers routinely ask why digitized, structured statutory text starts in 1994 rather than earlier, and why public laws and regulations begin in 2013 or 2018. The boundaries of this dataset reflect the historical transition of the United States federal government from physical print publishing to structured electronic data.
United States Code: Archive Editions vs. Modern Release Points
The Office of the Law Revision Counsel (OLRC) is charged by statute (2 U.S.C. § 285b) with codifying federal statutes into the United States Code. The OLRC's publishing history splits into two distinct eras:
- Why 1994? Prior to 1994, the OLRC and the Government Publishing Office produced the Code exclusively for physical print (supplemented by printed pocket parts and periodic multi-year main editions). The federal government did not publish machine-readable electronic compilations of the Code for earlier periods; pre-1994 editions exist only as physical books or scanned page images.
- The Historical Archive Era (1994–2012): During these 19 years, the OLRC published only one comprehensive snapshot per calendar year, frozen at the adjournment of each congressional session and current through the final Public Law of that session (103-465 in 1994 through 112-283 in 2012). Researchers can view the Code as it stood year-by-year, but official records do not preserve interim electronic snapshots between laws passed within the same calendar year.
- The Modern Release Point Era (2013–Present): Beginning with the 113th Congress in 2013 (starting with Public Law 113-21), the OLRC adopted modern publishing standards and transitioned to continuous "release points." Rather than waiting for an annual compendium, the OLRC now issues dozens of discrete releases per year as new public laws are enacted and codified. This enables point-in-time statutory reconstruction, automated release-to-release diffing, and exact citator tracking across 383 modern releases.
Other Federal Corpora
- Public Laws & Congressional Bills (2013 / 113th Congress): The Government Publishing Office (GPO) launched official bulk electronic publishing for slip laws and bill versions beginning with the 113th Congress. Earlier public laws are published in the printed Statutes at Large, and earlier bill texts exist only as individual scanned PDF documents or microfilm.
- Code of Federal Regulations (2018): The National Archives and GPO launched the modernized electronic CFR (eCFR) system with daily point-in-time versioning in 2017. Prior to this modernization, federal regulations were published as static annual paper volumes (staggered quarterly across titles 1 through 50) without continuous day-to-day point-in-time records.
- Executive Orders (2000): The Office of the Federal Register provides structured electronic records for presidential directives beginning in 2000 (starting with President Clinton's E.O. 13145). Executive orders issued before 2000 are available only as scanned print pages of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations Title 3 compilations.
Official Sources & Legal Authority
United States Code
The official codification of the general and permanent federal statutes of the United States.
| Official Source: | Office of the Law Revision Counsel (OLRC), U.S. House of Representatives |
| Statutory Mandate: | 2 U.S.C. § 285b |
| Historical Coverage: | 1994 – Present (browse all releases by date) |
| Legal Status: | Titles enacted into positive law constitute legal evidence of the laws; non-positive law titles serve as prima facie evidence under 1 U.S.C. § 204. |
Code of Federal Regulations
The codification of general and permanent administrative rules promulgated by federal executive departments and agencies.
| Official Source: | National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) and the Government Publishing Office (GPO) |
| Statutory Mandate: | 44 U.S.C. § 1510 |
| Historical Coverage: | 2018 – Present (annual editions plus live point-in-time eCFR) |
| Statutory Authority: | Regulations are cross-linked to the specific U.S. Code sections that authorize them. |
Public Laws
Enacted statutes passed by Congress and approved by the President (or enacted over a veto).
| Official Source: | GPO GovInfo and the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) |
| Statutory Mandate: | 1 U.S.C. § 112, 44 U.S.C. § 728 |
| Historical Coverage: | 113th Congress (2013) – Present |
| Code Cross-References: | Each public law is linked to the legislative bill that created it and the specific sections of the U.S. Code it amended. |
Congressional Bills
Proposed and enrolled legislative measures from the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
| Official Source: | GPO GovInfo and the Library of Congress |
| Historical Coverage: | 113th Congress (2013) – Present |
| Legislative Stages: | Traces statutory evolution across procedural stages (Introduced, Reported, Engrossed, Enrolled) with automated text diffs. |
Executive Orders
Presidential directives governing operations of the federal executive branch.
| Official Source: | Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration |
| Statutory Mandate: | 44 U.S.C. § 1505 |
| Historical Coverage: | 2000 – Present (EO 13145 to present) |
| Citations: | Includes official Federal Register citations, Presidential signing dates, and subject categorizations. |
Notice of Non-Affiliation
US Codex is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the United States government, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, or the National Archives. While extensive verification is conducted to ensure textual fidelity, authoritative legal citations should be verified against official government publications at uscode.house.gov, ecfr.gov, and govinfo.gov.