§285b — Title 2 The Congress | U.S. Code

Summary

The Office must prepare and send to the Committee on the Judiciary a complete rewrite and reorganization of the United States' permanent laws, handling the work title by title. The rewrites must follow Congress’s intent and fix unclear, conflicting, or faulty parts so each title can be enacted as official law (known as positive law). The Office must also review laws regularly and suggest repealing outdated parts; publish updated editions of the U.S. Code (including titles not yet positive law) with yearly supplements; put new laws into the right places in unenacted titles; update titles already enacted as positive law; publish new editions of the District of Columbia Code with annual supplements through the fifth annual cumulative supplement to the 1973 edition; and give advice and help to the Committee on the Judiciary when requested.

Title 2, §285b

The Congress — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The functions of the Office shall be as follows:

(1)To prepare, and submit to the Committee on the Judiciary one title at a time, a complete compilation, restatement, and revision of the general and permanent laws of the United States which conforms to the understood policy, intent, and purpose of the Congress in the original enactments, with such amendments and corrections as will remove ambiguities, contradictions, and other imperfections both of substance and of form, separately stated, with a view to the enactment of each title as positive law.

(2)To examine periodically all of the public laws enacted by the Congress and submit to the Committee on the Judiciary recommendations for the repeal of obsolete, superfluous, and superseded provisions contained therein.

(3)To prepare and publish periodically a new edition of the United States Code (including those titles which are not yet enacted into positive law as well as those titles which have been so enacted), with annual cumulative supplements reflecting newly enacted laws.

(4)To classify newly enacted provisions of law to their proper positions in the Code where the titles involved have not yet been enacted into positive law.

(5)To prepare and submit periodically such revisions in the titles of the Code which have been enacted into positive law as may be necessary to keep such titles current.

(6)To prepare and publish periodically new editions of the District of Columbia Code, with annual cumulative supplements reflecting newly enacted laws, through publication of the fifth annual cumulative supplement to the 1973 edition of such Code.

(7)To provide the Committee on the Judiciary with such advice and assistance as the committee may request in carrying out its functions with respect to the revision and codification of the Federal statutes.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section is based on section 205(c) of House Resolution No. 988, Ninety-third Congress, Oct. 8, 1974, which was enacted into permanent law by Pub. L. 93–554.

Amendments

1976—Par. (6). Pub. L. 94–386 substituted “through publication of the fifth annual cumulative supplement to the 1973 edition of such Code” for “until such time as the District of Columbia Self–Government and Governmental Reorganization Act becomes effective”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Preparation and Publication of District of Columbia Code Under Direction of Council of the District of Columbia Pub. L. 94–386, § 2, Aug. 14, 1976, 90 Stat. 1170, provided that: “(a) After publication by the Law Revision Counsel of the fifth annual cumulative supplement to the 1973 edition of the District of Columbia Code, new editions of the District of Columbia Code (and annual cumulative supplements thereto) shall be prepared and published under the direction of the Council of the District of Columbia and shall set forth the general and permanent laws relating to or in force in the District of Columbia, whether enacted by the Congress or by the Council of the District of Columbia, except such laws as are of application in the District of Columbia by reason of being laws of the United States general and permanent in nature. “(b) After completion of the printing of the fifth annual cumulative supplement to the 1973 edition of the District of Columbia Code, the Public Printer [now Director of the Government Publishing Office] shall, as the Council of the District of Columbia may request, either—“(1) furnish to the Council of the District of Columbia, on such terms as the Public Printer [now Director of the Government Publishing Office] (in consultation with the Joint Committee on Printing) deems appropriate, the type used in preparing the 1973 edition of the District of Columbia Code and the fifth annual cumulative supplement to such edition; or “(2) make such arrangements with the Council of the District of Columbia as the Public Printer [now Director of the Government Publishing Office] (in consultation with the Joint Committee on Printing) deems appropriate for the printing by the Government Printing Office [now Government Publishing Office] of future editions of the District of Columbia Code, and annual cumulative supplements thereto, prepared under the direction of the Council of the District of Columbia.”

§285b Functions