Public law and Statutes at Large
Original research draft · October 2026
Working pattern
[Act title], Pub. L. No. [Congress-law], § [section], [volume] Stat. [first page], [pinpoint] ([year]).
Capture from the source
Enactment identifier; act section; Statutes page; date; codification
Check before you use it
Use the act section for enactment language and trace any separate codified location.
Common error: Act section numbers and code section numbers need not match.
Completed example
GovInfo's enacted-law PDF, title, law number, date, and printed pages 4 and 138 were directly inspected October 8, 2026. Current tax law, benefits, individual eligibility, and later amendments were not evaluated.
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Pub. L. No. 117–2, § 9601(a), 135 Stat. 4, 138 (2021).
Read the supplied source facts
GovInfo's enacted-law PDF identifies the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 as Public Law 117–2, approved March 11, 2021. The Act begins at 135 Stat. 4. Its section 9601(a), printed at 135 Stat. 138, instructs insertion of a new Internal Revenue Code section numbered 6428B. In the downloaded document, the viewer's numbering includes a preliminary cover, so the PDF page position differs from the printed Statutes at Large page. The exercise asks for the enactment location that introduced the new code section, not a current tax-eligibility conclusion.
Why this works
The public-law number identifies the enactment, section 9601(a) identifies the part of that enactment, and 138 locates the printed passage. The number 4 remains the enactment's starting page. Do not substitute code section 6428B for act section 9601(a): one identifies the destination of the inserted text and the other identifies Congress's amending instruction. A citation to the codified provision would answer a different retrieval question. Read the actual printed header rather than translating the viewer's page count by memory; inserted cover sheets and other preliminary material can change that relationship.
When the facts change
If discussing the codified provision's later text, retrieve the relevant version of 26 U.S.C. § 6428B and cite that inspected version. If discussing a later amendment to the original enactment, identify the later law and its precise instruction rather than assuming the original public-law PDF incorporates all subsequent changes. Maintain separate entries for enactment, codification, and any later amendment in the version record.
Official source material
Apply the receiving court or publication’s requirements. These working forms do not establish citation permission, precedential weight, or support for a legal proposition.