U.S. Code Titles THE POLL

Which of you pocket protector wearing geeks voted "TELECOMMUNICATIONS"

don't look at me I voted for RAILROADS

https://legcounsel.house.gov/HOLC/Drafting_Legislation/Drafting_Guide.html#IIB

The easiest way to understand this distinction is to look at the purpose and history of the U.S. Code. The only organizing principle behind the slip laws, and thus the Statutes at Large, is chronology. This makes it very difficult to find the law on a particular topic using those sources. Beginning in 1926, the U.S. Code was published to organize the laws by subject matter and make them more accessible. The first editions of the Code were simply restatements of the laws being organized; they did not actually take the place of those laws. If there was a conflict between a Code provision and the underlying statutory provision, the statute controlled.

In 1947, Congress began the process of enacting titles of the Code into law and repealing the underlying statutes, a process that continues today. The provisions of a title so enacted become “positive” law, and the underlying statutory provisions can no longer be used to rebut them. One can quickly see the status of a title by looking at the first page after the title page of any volume of the Code or at the Search & Browse page on the Office of the Law Revision Counsel's website. Those titles marked with an asterisk have been enacted into positive law.

Our Office generally tries to organize the content of a bill, and provisions within a bill, according to the template below. We do not always follow this template, but it is often our starting point when we think about how to put together a draft.

• General rule: State the main message.
• Exceptions: Describe the persons or things to which the main message does not apply.
• Special rules: Describe the persons or things to which the main message applies in a different way or for which there is a different message.
• Transitional rules.
• Other provisions.
• Definitions.
• Effective date (if appropriate).
• “Authorization of appropriations” provisions (if appropriate).