What the Edition Year in a GovInfo U.S. Code URL Controls

The cited GovInfo PDFs for Title 1, Section 1 use different package identifiers: USCODE-2023-title1 and USCODE-2024-title1. A comparison of those two PDFs shows that the 2024 PDF includes two Public Law reference notes not displayed in the 2023 PDF, while both display an earlier note in common.

This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.

Key points

• The cited PDFs use USCODE-2023-title1 and USCODE-2024-title1 in their package identifiers.
• GovInfo says it contains virtual main editions of the U.S. Code from 1994 forward. (GovInfo Help)
• GovInfo says subsequent printed main editions have been published every six years since 1934. (GovInfo Help)
• The cited 2023 and 2024 PDFs display different sets of statutory notes for Title 1, Section 1.
• The 2024 PDF displays notes for Pub. L. 118-159 and Pub. L. 118-158 that are not displayed in the cited 2023 PDF.
• Both cited PDFs display the earlier Pub. L. 117-328 note.

How GovInfo dates editions

GovInfo’s own help page describes the scope of its dated coverage:

“GovInfo contains virtual main editions of the U.S. Code from 1994 forward.” (https://www.govinfo.gov/help/uscode)

and situates that yearly coverage against the printed publication cycle:

“Subsequent main editions have been published every six years since 1934.” (https://www.govinfo.gov/help/uscode)

The cited 2023 and 2024 package identifiers lead to different PDFs for the same title and section. This article does not establish the URL pattern or availability for every edition year.

This article does not describe, quote, or characterize the “Current through” currency statement or any other wording on the Office of the Law Revision Counsel’s separate uscode.house.gov edition of the Code, because that page could not be reached during verification. It does not compare the GovInfo edition to the uscode.house.gov edition, and it makes no claim about which single edition — GovInfo’s or the Office of the Law Revision Counsel’s — is “the current” U.S. Code in general.

What changed between packages

The cited 2023 and 2024 PDFs for Title 1, Section 1 display different statutory notes.

The 2023 package (USCODE-2023-title1) carries this note:

“REFERENCES IN PUB. L. 117–328 Pub. L. 117–328, §3, Dec. 29, 2022, 136 Stat. 4461, provided that: ’’Except as expressly provided otherwise, any reference to ‘this Act’ contained in any division of this Act [Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, see Tables for classification] shall be treated as referring only to the provisions of that division.‘’” (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title1/pdf/USCODE-2023-title1-chap1-sec1.pdf)

The 2024 package (USCODE-2024-title1) carries that same Pub. L. 117–328 note, plus two additional notes that are not present in the 2023 package:

“REFERENCES IN PUB. L. 118–159 Pub. L. 118–159, §3(1), Dec. 23, 2024, 138 Stat. 1799, provided that: ’’In this Act [Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, see Tables for classification]: ‘’(1) In divisions A through D, the term ‘this Act’ refers to divisions A through D.‘’” (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title1/pdf/USCODE-2024-title1-chap1-sec1.pdf)

“REFERENCES IN PUB. L. 118–158 Pub. L. 118–158, §3, Dec. 21, 2024, 138 Stat. 1723, provided that: ’’Except as expressly provided otherwise, any reference to ‘this Act’ contained in any division of this Act [Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2025, see Tables for classification] shall be treated as referring only to the provisions of that division.‘’” (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title1/pdf/USCODE-2024-title1-chap1-sec1.pdf)

For this one section and these two PDFs, the 2024 PDF displays the two Pub. L. 118 notes as well as the Pub. L. 117–328 note; the cited 2023 PDF displays the Pub. L. 117–328 note but not those two Pub. L. 118 notes. This comparison does not determine why the notes differ.

This article does not generalize beyond the two editions and the one section actually fetched here: no claim is made about other titles, other sections, other edition years, or about whether a 2025 GovInfo main-edition package exists or what URL it would use.

Legal evidence vs. prima facie evidence

GovInfo’s help page also states a general rule about how much legal weight the Code’s text carries:

“When a title of the Code was enacted into positive law, the text of the title became legal evidence of the law. Titles that have not been enacted into positive law are only prima facie evidence of the law. In that case, the Statutes at Large still govern.” (https://www.govinfo.gov/help/uscode)

In other words, whether a given title’s Code text is itself legal evidence, or only prima facie evidence pointing back to the Statutes at Large, depends on whether Congress enacted that particular title into positive law.

Source links

https://www.govinfo.gov/help/uscode https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title1/pdf/USCODE-2023-title1-chap1-sec1.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title1/pdf/USCODE-2024-title1-chap1-sec1.pdf