United States Code

Codified collection of federal legislation in the United States.

In 1874, the United States of America consolidated their statutes and published them as a set of revised statutes but by 1926, when the US Code came into being, the revised statutes become difficult to sort out because a significant number of statutes had been added since 1875.

Congress authorized the codification of US statutes with the first edition in a four volume set, and including some 50 titles, to be updated annually, and with a new edition coming out every six years.

Responsibility for the publication of the United States Code now falls upon the US House of Representative's Office of the Law Revision Counsel (as reflected in the Office's choice of URL: uscode.house.gov).

That Office defines the Code as a "consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States" and adds that "the Code does not include regulations issued by executive branch agencies, decisions of the Federal courts, treaties, or laws enacted by State or local governments".

An online version of the US Code is housed at Cornell University at law.cornell.edu/uscode.

Another version is available through an American government website GPO Access, at gpoaccess.gov/uscode

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel also houses an online version of the Code, at uscode.house.gov/download/download.shtml and at uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml.

Another, privately owned online version of the US code is at findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes.