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How to I Cite a Bill as a Reference

A bill can refer to either a public or private law passed by a congressional legislature. Public bills affect all citizens of the United States while private laws affect only specific people or organizations. Both the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) have methods for citing bills in a reference list. Congressional bills can be important research tools for many research papers in both social science and humanities fields. Unlike other government documents, bills are fairly easy to cite and the information necessary is easy to find.

Instructions

- 1
  Cite the bill's number and the year it was passed for an APA in-text citation. You can either cite the bill in the text of the paper or with the date in parentheses. For example: House Bill 348 (1968) or (H.R. 348, 1968).
- 2
  Cite the bill as title, Congressional Congress number, session number and date. The bill should have both the title and the number in it. For example: Education Act of 2001, S. 1092, 104th Cong., 2nd Sess. (2001).
- 3
  Cite bills in MLA format with the bill number and the page numbers referenced with in-text MLA citations. For example: (S.156, 3-5).
- 4
  Cite the full bill on a works cited page by distinguishing whether this is a Senate or House bill, the title of the bill in italics, the number of the Congressional Congress, the session number, the bill number, the location where the bill was passed, the date and the medium. For example: United States. Cong. House. Clean Water Act. 99th Cong., 3rd sess. H. Rept. 548. Washington: GPO, 2003. Print.

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