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How to Locate the Text of a Public Law Using the U.S. Federal Legislative History Database

This article will show how to locate the text of a public law using its popular name in the U.S. Federal Legislative History Library.

Browse by Options

To locate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act text, begin by navigating to the Popular Name option on the database homepage.

image of Browse by options in U.S. Federal legislative History Library

Next, navigate to the letter P using the A-Z index provided.

image of A-Z index under Popular Name

Locate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, listed alphabetically, or use your Ctrl + f function to search for the Act. Click the title to see all available legislative histories.

image of legislative history listing under act name

Let’s open the first title, Health Care Reform: A Legislative History of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law No. 111-148 (2010). Click the Cumulative Contents link to open up all the documents indexed in the title.

image of cumulative contents button within title listing

Usually, within a compiled legislative history, the documents, such as the text and any codifications, will be listed first after the table of contents and indexes.

Click Page 119 to view the text of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

image of the text for a public law

Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories

Users can also locate the text of a public law using the Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories Database, found within the U.S. Federal Legislative History Database. This print resource was converted to an online database to help users easily determine whether a legislative history of a particular public law has been compiled. It also provides related documents, books, or scholarly articles.

image of Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories subcollection

From this subcollection, choose Popular Name of Public Law from the drop-down menu and enter Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

image of search in Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories

View the first result to see a bibliography of the Act. Next, click the Statutes at Large citation to be brought to the text of the public law.

image of where to find the text of a public law within Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories

For more information on how to navigate through the U.S. Federal Legislative History database, check out our dedicated LibGuide.

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