Act of Congress in the context of "Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004"

The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States.

The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The powers of these three branches are defined and vested by the U.S. Constitution, which has been in continuous effect since March 4, 1789. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by Acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts subordinate to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The United States Department of the Navy (DON) is one of the three military departments within the United States Department of Defense. It was established by an Act of Congress on 30 April 1798, at the urging of Secretary of War James McHenry, to provide a government organizational structure to the United States Navy (USN). Since 1834, the department has exercised jurisdiction over the United States Marine Corps (USMC), and during wartime the United States Coast Guard (USCG). These branches remain at all times independent and coequal service branches within the DON. It is led by the secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), a statutory civilian officer.

The Department of the Navy was an executive department, whose secretary served on the president's cabinet, until 1949, when amendments to the National Security Act of 1947 established the Department of Defense as a unified department for all military services; the DON, along with the Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force, became a component of the DoD, subject to the authority, direction and control of the secretary of defense.

The United States Intelligence Community (IC) is a group of separate U.S. federal government intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations that work to conduct intelligence activities which support the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States. Member organizations of the IC include intelligence agencies, military intelligence, and civilian intelligence and analysis offices within federal executive departments.

The IC is overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which is headed by the director of national intelligence (DNI) who reports directly to the president of the United States. The IC was established by Executive Order 12333 ("United States Intelligence Activities"), signed on December 4, 1981, by President Ronald Reagan. The statutory definition of the IC, including its roster of agencies, was codified as the Intelligence Organization Act of 1992 (Pub. L. 102–496, H.R. 5095, 106 Stat. 3188).

The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO), formerly the United States Government Printing Office, is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office produces and distributes information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive departments, and independent agencies.

An act of Congress changed the office's name to its current form in 2014.

The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 is an Act of Congress that repealed the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown and established a new territorial government for the whole District of Columbia. Though Congress repealed the territorial government in 1874, the legislation was the first to create a single municipal government for the federal district. Direct rule by Congress continued until the 1973 passage of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, a century later.

In United States law, an organic act is an act of the United States Congress that establishes an administrative agency or local government, for example, the laws that established territory of the United States and specified how they are to be governed, or established agency to manage certain federal lands. In the absence of organic law, the body of laws that define and establish a government, a territory is classified as unorganized.

The first such act was the Northwest Ordinance, passed in 1787 by the U.S. Congress of the Confederation (under the Articles of Confederation, predecessor of the United States Constitution). The Northwest Ordinance created the Northwest Territory in the land west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River and set the pattern of development that was followed for all subsequent territories. The Northwest Territory covered more than 260,000 square miles and included all of the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the northeastern part of Minnesota.

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Constitución del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit. 'Constitution of the Free Associated State of Puerto Rico') is the primary organizing law for the unincorporated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, describing the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the local government of Puerto Rico and its relation with the U.S. in nine articles. Established under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950, it was approved by the residents of the archipelago and island in a constitutional referendum on March 3, 1952, ratified by the U.S. Congress as per Pub. L. 82–447 on July 3, 1952, and proclaimed into effect by Governor Luis Muñoz Marín on July 25, 1952, which is celebrated as Constitution Day. As the constitution of a U.S. territory, it is bound by the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitution of Puerto Rico established the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which succeeded the insular government that operated under two organic acts: the Foraker Act from 1900 to 1917 and the Jones–Shafroth Act from 1917 to 1952. With the ratification of the constitution in 1952, the full authority and responsibility for the local government of Puerto Rico was vested in the residents of Puerto Rico, resulting in complete self-governance within the archipelago and island.

The Foraker Act (Pub. L. 56–191, 31 Stat. 77, enacted April 12, 1900), officially called the Organic Act of 1900 and most commonly known by the name of its sponsor, Senator Joseph B. Foraker, (R-Ohio), is an organic act of the 56th United States Congress that was signed into law by President William McKinley on April 12, 1900. The Act replaced the military government of Puerto Rico, which was established by the United States after the annexation of the archipelago and island during the Spanish–American War in 1898, with a civil insular government under the continued federal jurisdiction of the United States as the local administration of an unincorporated territory. It served as the primary organic law for the government of Puerto Rico and its relation with the United States until it was superseded by the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917.

The Foraker Act established a civil government in Puerto Rico modeled after the federal government of the United States. It divided the local government of the unincorporated territory into three branches: an executive, consisting of a Governor and an 11-member Executive Council appointed by the President of the United States, a legislative, composed of bicameral Legislative Assembly, with the Executive Council as its upper chamber and a 35-member House of Delegates elected by the residents of Puerto Rico as its lower chamber, and a judicial, headed by a chief justice and a district judge appointed by the President. The Act created the office of Resident Commissioner, a non-voting member to the United States House of Representatives elected by the residents of Puerto Rico. It also established Puerto Rican citizenship and extended American nationality to Puerto Ricans.

The Jones–Shafroth Act (Pub. L. 64–368, 39 Stat. 951, enacted March 2, 1917), officially called the Organic Act of Puerto Rico or the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1917, is an organic act of the 64th United States Congress that was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917. The Act expanded the civil administration of the insular government of Puerto Rico, which was established under the federal jurisdiction of the United States as the local governance of an unincorporated territory through the Foraker Act of 1900. It served as the primary organic law for the government of Puerto Rico and its relation with the United States until it was superseded by the Constitution of Puerto Rico in 1952 as per the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950 and its Pub. L. 82–447 joint resolution.

Bearing the names of its sponsors, Representative William Atkinson Jones, (D-Virginia), chairman of the House Committee on Insular Affairs, and Senator John Shafroth, (D-Colorado), chairman of the Committee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico, the Jones–Shafroth Act, which operated as a de facto constitution, established a bill of rights based on the United States Bill of Rights and granted statutory birthright United States citizenship to anyone born in the archipelago and island on or after April 11, 1899.

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Pub. L. 85–568) is the United States federal statute that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Act, which followed close on the heels of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, was drafted by the United States House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration and on July 29, 1958 was signed by President Eisenhower. Prior to enactment, the responsibility for space exploration was deemed primarily a military venture, in line with the Soviet model that had launched the first orbital satellite. In large measure, the Act was prompted by the lack of response by a US military infrastructure that seemed incapable of keeping up the space race.

The original 1958 act charged the new Agency with conducting the aeronautical and space activities of the United States "so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives:"

In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title.

The long title (properly, the title in some jurisdictions) is the formal title appearing at the head of a statute (such as an act of Parliament or of Congress) or other legislative instrument. The long title is intended to provide a summarised description of the purpose or scope of the instrument. Like other descriptive components of an act (such as the preamble, section headings, side notes, and short title), the long title seldom affects the operative provisions of an act, except where the operative provisions are unclear or ambiguous and the long title provides a clear statement of the legislature's intention.

The National Security Act of 1947 (Pub.L. 80-253, 61 Stat. 495, enacted July 26, 1947) was a law enacting major restructuring of the United States government's military and intelligence agencies following World War II. The majority of the provisions of the act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first secretary of defense.

The act merged the Department of the Army (renamed from the Department of War), the Department of the Navy, and the newly established Department of the Air Force (DAF) into the National Military Establishment (NME). The act also created the position of the secretary of defense as the head of the NME. It established the United States Air Force under the DAF, which worked to separate the Army Air Forces into its own service. It also protected the Marine Corps as an independent service under the Department of the Navy. Aside from the unification of the three military departments, the act established the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, the latter of which is headed by the director of central intelligence.

Title 10 of the United States Code outlines the role of United States Armed Forces.It provides the legal basis for the roles, missions and organization of each of the services as well as the United States Department of Defense. Each of the five subtitles deals with a separate aspect or component of the armed services.

• Subtitle A—General Military Law, including Uniform Code of Military Justice
• Subtitle B—Army
• Subtitle C—Navy and Marine Corps
• Subtitle D—Air Force and Space Force
• Subtitle E—Reserve Components
• Subtitle F—Alternative Military Personnel Systems

The current Title 10 was the result of an overhaul and renumbering of the former Title 10 and Title 34 into one title by an act of Congress on August 10, 1956. The provisions of United States Code within Title 10 that are outlined in this article are up to date as of March 13, 2024.

The United States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as the Statutes at Large and abbreviated Stat., are an official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress.

Each act and resolution of Congress is originally published as a slip law, which is classified as either public law (abbreviated Pub.L.) or private law (Pvt.L.), and designated and numbered accordingly. At the end of a congressional session, the statutes enacted during that session are compiled into bound books, known as "session law" publications. The United States Statutes at Large is the name of the session law publication for U.S. Federal statutes. The public laws and private laws are numbered and organized in chronological order.