Social Work 520: Finding Bill Numbers

For Statutes, Acts, Laws

GovInfo contains all published versions of bills from the 103rd (1993-1994) Congress forward.

Congress.gov has statutory information from the 93rd Congress (1973-1974) to present.

Beginning with the 58th Congress (March 4, 1903-present), bill numbers for enacted statutes can be obtained by consulting the Statutes at Large. 

Identifying Bill Numbers

The format of a bill number is [Chamber][Type][Number]. For the U.S. Congress, there are two chambers

• H.R. or H.: House
• S: Senate

There are several types of bills:

• Bills
  • H.R.: House Bill
  • S.: Senate Bill
• Joint Resolutions
  • H.J.Res.: House Joint Resolution
  • S.J.Res.: Senate Joint Resolution
• Concurrent Resolutions
  • H.Con.Res.: House Concurrent Resolution
  • S.Con.Res.: Senate Concurrent Resolution
• Simple Resolutions
  • H.Res.: House Simple Resolution
  • S.Res.: Senate Simple Resolution

Here are some example bill numbers: HB5592, S.Res.536, H.Con.Res.280, SJR375.