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Policy Researcher Tutorial

10. Finding the Full Text of Laws in LexisNexis Congressional:

LexisNexis Congressional
Access via web:  http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp/
Coverage varies.  (Updated daily)

Web-based indexing and abstracting service for public laws with full text of the
law available via the Statutes at Large module since 1789.

To find the full text of a law within Lexis/Nexis Congressional, you need to know the difference between Public Laws and Statutes at Large:

Public Laws
Laws of general applicability to the country first published individually as slip laws. New laws are often amendments to previous laws and may be difficult to read. Some new laws, such as those entitled "omnibus," can cover several different subjects.

Statutes at Large
The official compilation of public and private laws printed by the Government Printing Office. The Statutes at Large is printed annually and the laws within it are arranged by order of passage.

Follow the next three pages of this four-part lesson on finding the full-text of a law and subsequent amendments by using the Next > button on this and the next three pages.