README.md

metadata

license: cc0-1.0
language:
  - en
pretty_name: United States Code, versioned by release point
size_categories:
  - 100K<n<1M
task_categories:
  - text-retrieval
  - question-answering
  - summarization
tags:
  - legal
  - legislation
  - statutes
  - us-code
  - uslm
configs:
  - config_name: current
    default: true
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: current/train-*
  - config_name: versions
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: versions/train-*

United States Code, versioned by release point

Every section of the United States Code, as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (OLRC) at uscode.house.gov, across every release point from 113-21 (July 18, 2013) through the present. A release point is OLRC's republication of the Code after a batch of Public Laws is classified; this dataset covers 381 of them over 58 titles.

Each row carries the section's plain text, its verbatim USLM XML, its citation, its place in the Code's hierarchy, and its release-point metadata. The text of a section that did not change between release points is stored once, with the list of release points that published it.

Configs

• current (65,938 rows) — one row per section, carrying the text in force at the newest release point that section appears at. Use this for retrieval, RAG, and any pipeline that wants "the US Code, today".
• versions (489,738 rows) — one row per distinct text a section has had, with first_release/last_release/releases recording when it was in force. Use this to follow a provision over time or to read the Code as it stood at a past release point.

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

current = load_dataset("dreamproit/uscode", "current", split="train")

# Title 16, sections only, plain text:
t16 = current.filter(lambda row: row["title"] == "16")

# One provision's history, oldest text first:
versions = load_dataset("dreamproit/uscode", "versions", split="train")
history = sorted(
    versions.filter(lambda row: row["identifier"] == "/us/usc/t16/s45f"),
    key=lambda row: row["first_release_seq"] or 0,
)

content_hash is shared between the two configs: a current row and the versions row holding the same text carry the same value.

Data fields — current

Field	Type	Description
identifier	string	USLM logical path, e.g. /us/usc/t16/s45f. Stable across release points unless the section is renumbered.
citation	string | null	16 U.S.C. § 45f. Null for appendix and act-style identifiers (see limitations).
title	string	Title number as a string — 5a (an appendix title) and 5 are different titles.
title_name	string	CONSERVATION
title_is_positive_law	bool	Whether the title has been enacted as positive law.
num	string | null	The designator as published, e.g. § 45f.
num_value	string | null	The machine designator, e.g. 45f. May contain U+2013 (en dash).
heading	string | null	Section heading.
status	string | null	repealed, omitted, transferred, reserved, renumbered, … Free text, not a closed set.
parent_identifier	string | null	The enclosing subdivision at this release point.
ancestors	list of struct	The chain from the title down to the parent: {identifier, level, num, heading} per node, from the newest release's structure.
seq_in_title	int32	Reading order within the title at this release point.
text	string	Plain text of the statutory body: one line per provision, designator and heading on the provision's first line. Notes, source credit, and tables of contents are excluded — they have their own fields.
xml	string	The section's USLM XML, verbatim, namespace declarations included.
source_credit	string | null	The enactment/amendment credit line.
notes	list of struct	OLRC's editorial and statutory notes: {topic, role, heading, text} per note. The notes' verbatim XML is inside xml.
uslm_schema	string	Schema of the source file, e.g. uslm-1.0.15.
release_label	string	The release point this row's text and placement come from, e.g. 119-102not101.
release_seq	int32	The release point's position in OLRC's publication order. Labels do not sort lexically; sort on this.
currency_date	date	The date the release point is current through. A label containing not means listed laws are excluded even before this date.
release_congress	int32	119
release_law	int32	102
release_update	int32 | null	The u1 re-issue number, when present.
release_excluded_laws	list of int32	The laws named by not in the label.
content_hash	string	SHA-256 (hex) of the XML with every @id removed — the key that joins a row to its versions counterpart.
text_since	string | null	The earliest release point that published this exact text.

Data fields — versions

identifier through content_hash as above, plus:

Field	Type	Description
uslm_version	string	USLM generation of this version's XML: 1 or 2.
first_release / last_release	string | null	The earliest and latest release points that published this text.
first_release_seq / last_release_seq	int32 | null	Their positions in publication order.
first_currency_date / last_currency_date	date | null	Their currency dates.
releases	list of string	Every release point that published this text, in publication order.
release_count	int32	Length of releases.
is_current	bool	Whether this is the text in force at the newest release point — the row the current config carries.
identifier_collision	bool	True on the 160 (identifier, release) pairs where the source published two elements under one identifier.
parent_identifier / seq_in_title	string / int32 | null	Placement at this version's first mapped release point.

Source and provenance

The corpus is downloaded from OLRC's release-point archive at uscode.house.gov, one zip per (title, release point), and parsed from USLM XML (1.x and 2.x). Each ingested release point has a manifest recording the source URL, the zip's SHA-256, and per-title section counts, in the source repository under data/manifests/. The same pipeline serves uscode.linkedlegislation.org, where any row's identifier resolves to a reader page (/app/us/usc/t16/s45f?release=119-99) and /api/v1/us/usc/… returns the same content over JSON or verbatim XML.

The source is polled daily. When OLRC publishes a new release point, the corpus reloads and this dataset is re-exported and re-uploaded; the commit message names the release point. manifest.json in this repo records the export's fingerprint, row counts, and per-shard SHA-256 hashes.

Limitations

• citation is null for the 461 appendix sections: their identifiers are act- or law-relative (/us/usc/t5a/pl/92/463/s1), and OLRC publishes nothing at the flat 5 U.S.C. App. 3 form.
• Section numbers use U+2013 (en dash), not a hyphen: 45a–1. 5,697 sections contain one. Match user input against both.
• At 160 (identifier, release point) pairs the source publishes two elements under one identifier. Both texts are present in versions, flagged identifier_collision; current carries one of the two.
• text runs a headed provision's designator and heading on one line with the body below; the printed Code runs them into the body text.
• ancestors reflects the hierarchy at the newest loaded release point, for rows of every age.
• status values are OLRC's own and are not a closed set. Repealed and omitted sections keep their place in reading order.
• Four section identifiers embed a literal § (a converter artifact); citation and num_value strip it, identifier keeps it verbatim.

License

The United States Code is a work of the United States Government and is in the public domain (CC0 1.0).

Maintainer

DreamProIT. Related dataset: bill_summary_us.