Legislative Research for GOVT 452

Your goal is to find out about the law that established your agency. The steps below use the example of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Step 1: Locate the name and year of the law that created your agency

Option A: Visit the agency's website. Look for a link to "about" or "history". Most agencies identify the law through which they were created by name. Some also include the U.S. Code citation.

Example: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5801)

Option B: You will find a profile of your agency in the United States Government Manual [as of Spring 2022 this resource was not being updated, but the law and US Code citation are usually still correct!].

The United States Government Manual is available on Govinfo.gov:

1. Go to https://www.govinfo.gov/

2. Click on "Browse by A to Z" on the home page.

3. Click the letter "U" or scroll down to the  "U" section.

4. Click United States Government Manual

• Tip: some agencies are inside departments--check Wikipedia or agency website to figure out where to look for your agency.

• Tip: the agency's profile in the US Government Manual also includes head of agency, agency type, and overview of agency function.

• Link: https://www.usgovernmentmanual.gov

Step 2: Get from your law's Popular Name to its US Code, Stat, & PL citations, as well as bill number

Where to look:

• OPTION A: Use  Proquest Legislative Insight:
  • Follow along with this quick step-by-step guide or us this PDF handout.
  • Enter the popular name of the law (the search box will guess & autofill the law of interest)
  • Open the legislative history for that law to obtain basic citation information. The citations you need appear in the first lines of the legislative history.
  • Note: The Legislative History in Proquest Legislative Insight contains far more information than you need for Assignment 2. Just find the citations you need for Question 7 and the bill number.
• OPTION B: Use the Table of Popular Names in the Cornell Legal Information Institute
  • ​Open the Table of Popular Names
  • Select the first letter of your law's name
  • Scroll down (or use control + F [command +F for macs] and enter the beginning of the law's name)
  • Record the various citations provided under your law's name 
  • The Table of Popular Names does not include the Bill number. For this you'll need to go to congress.gov. 
    • Limit the search to Legislation (the default is current legislation).
    • Enter the PL number WITHOUT SPACES OR PUNCTUATION
    • The results should pull up your law...check to make sure it's correct, then record the Bill #.

Example: The legal citations for the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 are

U.S. Code citation: 42 U.S.C. 5801

Public law number:  P.L. 93-438

Statutes at Large citation: 88 Stat. 1233

Enacted Bill 93 H.R. 11510

Law Enacted date: Oct. 11, 1974

Step 1: Look up your agency in the U.S. Code, then check the citations listed below the description/functions of your agency.

Option A: Browse in the Cornell LII U.S.Code https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text

Option B: Advanced Search in Govinfo.gov: https://www.govinfo.gov/#advanced (in "refine by collection", select US Code)

Step 2: Look up the citation you found in the U.S. Code via Proquest Congressional's Citation search (Click the "Legislative & executive publications" tab. In the dropdown menu, select "Search by number")