Finding Constitutional Authority Statements

Constitutional Authority Statements are required by clause 7(c) of rule XII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, amended on January 5, 2011 by H.Res.5.

Authority Statements are printed in the Congressional Record. Multiple statements are combined in a single daily listing with House bills (H.R.) and joint resolutions (H.J.Res.) in number order, as seen in this January 6, 2011, Constitutional Authority Statement example.

To find Constitutional Authority Statements via Bill Summary & Status:

1. Follow the Constitutional Authority Statement link.
   
   
   
   
2. You will be taken to the Government Printing Office's FDsys website. Follow the Constitutional Authority Statement link.
   
   
   
   
3. A PDF file of the relevant Congressional Record article will open. Find the bill or joint resolution for which you were looking.
   
   
   
   

Alternately, you can search the Congressional Record on THOMAS:

1. Begin at the Congressional Record search page.
   
   
   
   
2. Copy and paste into the search box one of the items below (replacing the sample number with the one from the bill or joint resolution you want to search). Be sure to include the entire phrase including quotation marks:

   "constitutional authority statement"	if you want all statements in a Congress
   "constitutional authority statement" and "h.r. 55"	if you want a statement for a specific House bill
   "constitutional authority statement" and "h.j. res. 11"	if you want a statement for a specific House joint resolution

   
   In this example, we will search for "constitutional authority statement" and "h.r. 55"
    
   
   
   
3. Select the search result that is titled "Constitutional Authority Statement" and is from the House of Representatives.
   
    
   
   
4. The next screen will contain a list of Congressional Record results. Although the bill you are searching for may not be there, select one of the results.
   In this example, select "Page: H42."
   
    
   
   
5. Use your browser's find tool (usually Ctrl f) to search through the list of Constitutional Authority statements for your specific House bill.
   In this example, do a find for "55."
   
    
   
   
6. The find tool will locate the Constitutional Authority of the House bill for which you are searching.