All three branches of the federal government produce law. The Executive branch produces administrative law, or rules and regulations. The Judicial branch produces case law, which often interprets statutory law. Bills are proposed legislation that may be introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate and are the first step in the process of making statutory law. They are numbered sequentially within each two-year session of Congress.
Many bills never become law.
Bills for all sessions from the 103 rd Congress on are available on the Internet through GPO Access , and the Library of Congress Thomas web site. After a bill has moved through both houses of Congress and been signed by the President, it becomes a law. It is first officially published as a slip law, a separately published law in an unbound, single-sheet or pamphlet form. A slip law is designated by a public law number indicating, first, the Congress in which it was enacted and, second, the chronological sequence of enactment within a given Congress, e.g. Public Law 104-28. Slip laws are available in the Reference Room at K U58 or on the Internet through GPO Access .