Bluebook Citation: Legislative Materials

When citing United States legislative material, except debates, include the following elements to their citation:

1. The title of the material;
2. The abbreviated name of the house;
3. The number of the Congress;
4. The number assigned to the material itself; and 
5. The year of publication

These elements can be arranged in a variety of ways, dependent upon what type of material you are citing to in your paper.

Rule 13 (Rule B13 in the Bluepages): Covers all of the citation rules regarding legislative materials

Table 6: Provides abbreviations for case names and institutional authors in citations

Table 9: Lists the abbreviations for citation of the words most commonly found in legislative documents

Table 10: Gives abbreviations for geographical locations 

Table 11: Abbreviates titles of judges and other officials

Federal Bills and Resolutions

When citing federal bills and resolutions, include:

1. The name of the bill (or resolution);
2. The abbreviated name of the house;
3. The number of the bill;
4. The number of the Congress;
5. The section (if any);
6. The year of publication.

This is formatting used when citing unenacted bills or the legislative history of an enacted bill. An enacted bill is a statute, so if you are citing to an enacted bill for anything other than its legislative history, it should be cited to as a statute.