Public and Private Laws (PLAW)

Public and Private Laws contains the official text of enacted federal legislation, published as slip laws by the Government Publishing Office after bills receive presidential signature or veto override.

Public and Private Laws represent the final, enacted form of legislation. After Congress passes a bill and the President signs it (or Congress overrides a veto), the Government Publishing Office publishes the enacted law in a standardized format called a slip law. This collection contains that official published text for all public laws (legislation affecting the general public or the government) and private laws (legislation affecting specific individuals or entities).

Slip laws serve as the intermediate step between bill passage and codification into the United States Code. When a law is enacted, the slip law is the first official publication of the complete text in its final form. Slip laws include the statutory language and a front matter section showing the bill number, the date of enactment, the President who signed it (if applicable), and procedural details. The Government Publishing Office publishes slip laws as they are enacted, which typically occurs weeks after a bill passes Congress—the time lag accounts for the process of enrolling the bill (producing the final, ceremonial copy Congress and the President sign).

Within the legislative record, slip laws serve as the authoritative source for understanding what Congress actually enacted. They sit between the Congressional Record and Bills (which show the legislative process) and the U.S. Code (which integrates laws into the standing legal framework). A reader tracing a law from proposal to enactment would encounter the bill text in the Bills collection, debate in the Congressional Record, and final enacted language here.

The collection is complete for the modern era: every public and private law enacted and published receives a law number and appears here. The Government Publishing Office publishes slip laws as structured text, making them machine-readable and consistent across publications.

In this digest, readers encounter enacted laws when legislation passes both chambers and is signed into law. The digest reports on new public laws affecting policy areas of national interest—legislation on budgets, regulations, benefits, or other matters Congress has enacted. Readers see the official Government Publishing Office publication, providing the authoritative text of what the law actually says.

Note: the collection captures only laws that have reached enactment. Bills that fail, vetoes that are not overridden, or other legislation that does not become law do not appear here.

Model-written orientation, generated 2026-08-04 by haiku, prompt version 1. It may draw on general knowledge of public institutions and is not official-record content.

Public and Private Laws collection syncs via govinfo delta mechanism from July 25 baseline. Over the measured 14-day window we collected 3 items averaging 4,270 characters at 0.21 per day, most recent on September 2. This reflects minimal publishing activity noted in the registry: no slip laws have been published within our observation window. The collection is positioned to capture enacted laws as they are published by the Government Publishing Office. Compared to the prior assessment (no items as of August 5), we now have minimal data as publication begins.

Model-written assessment of our own ingestion, generated 2026-09-05 by haiku, prompt version 1, trigger: age-30d. It restates our measured figures and is not official-record content.