Congressional Bills
REFERENCE LIST ENTRY
Basic Form
Title, Abbreviated Name of the House, Number of the Congress Cong, Number assigned to the material, (Year).
** The session number can be inferred from the year of publication: First sessionals always fall in odd-numbered years, while second sessionals always fall in even-numbered years.Rarely, Congress holds a third session. When citing materials produced during a third session, provide the information parenthetically.
Example
Privacy Protection Act of 1998, H.R. 3224, 105th Cong. §2(a) (1998).
H.R.J. Res. 79, 106th Cong. (1999).
TEXT CITATION
Basic Form
House Bill or Senate Bill number (Year)
Examples
Senate Bill 671 (1993) provided for treatment of severe mental illnesses.
A proposed law (S. 671, 1993) provided for treatment of severe mental illnesses.
Congressional Hearings
REFERENCE LIST ENTRY
Basic form
Title of Hearing, Number of Congress Cong. Page (Year) (testimony of Name of witness).
Example
Ru 486: The import ban and its effect on medical research: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Regulation, Business Opportunities, and Energy, of the House Committee on Small Business, 101st Cong. 35 (1990) (testimony of Ronald Chesemore).
TEXT CITATION
Basic form
Title(Year).
Example
Chesemore's testimony is found in RU486: The Import Ban (1990).
Federal Legislative Reports and Documents
REFERENCE LIST ENTRY
Basic form
Name of House, the number of the Congress connected by a hyphen to the number of the report, the part and/or page number on which material being cited appears, and the (year).
Abbreviations
Senate Report.: S. Rep. No.
Senate Document: S. Doc. No
House Report: H.R. Rep. No.
House Document: H.R. Doc. No.
Example
H.R. Rep. No. 99-253, pt. 1, at 54 (1985).
TEXT CITATION
Basic Forms
Series name No. number (Year)
(Series abbreviation number, year)
Examples
In House Report No. 253 (1985), the House Agriculture Committee approved amendments to the Federal Crop Insurance Act.
The House Agriculture Committee approved amendments to the Federal Crop Insurance Act. (H.R. Rep. No. 253, 1985).
Federal Statutes
REFERENCE LIST ENTRY
Cite a statute in its location in the U.S. Code. Alternatively, cite the statute in its original publication in the Statutes at Large, rather than in the code. This is usually done when the statute is an appropriation, has been repealed, or has its contents scattered in different parts of the Code.
Basic form
Name of Act, Volume U.S.C. § Section number (Date).
Name of Act, Pub. L. No. Number , § Section number, Volume Stat. Page (date).
Examples
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. § 4332 (1994).
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-336, § 2, 104 Stat. 328 (1991).
TEXT CITATION
Basic form
Name of Act (Year)
Name of Act of Year
Examples
The National Environmental Policy Act (1969) established the Council on Environmental Quality.
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 established the Council on Environmental Quality.
Source: http://lib.westfield.mas.edu/cite. Citation guides. Ely Library. Westfield State University. Updated 3/20/14