Law new is a collection of official rules that govern behavior within a society or country. These rules are made by legislative bodies like Congress, and once they have been enacted into written law they are known as statutes. These statutes can then be enforced by courts and agencies in order to create a specific legal environment.
Legislation in the United States can take many forms, but most are called bills or proposals for legislation. Once they are debated, voted upon and agreed to by legislators they become laws. This is how a law is created; it starts out as one idea, then after debate and voting it becomes an official rule that can be enforced by the courts and other government officials.
DCWP regularly publishes updates and resources to help our customers and the public stay informed about new laws, regulations and Children’s Bureau policies. As federal legislation passes, or regulations are adopted, or the Children’s Bureau announces a change to its policy, these changes will be added to this page.
This list includes a selection of enacted laws, both public and private, that have been assigned slip law (PL) numbers by NARA and published in the Statutes at Large. These PL numbers link to the full text of the law in GPO’s slip law publication. This list does not include private laws enacted by the legislature, but may include laws passed during a special session of the Congress that were later incorporated into the Statutes at Large.