TOPN: Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

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What's in a popular name?

Laws acquire popular names as they make their way through Congress. Sometimes these names say something about the substance of the law (as with the '2002 Winter Olympic Commemorative Coin Act'). Sometimes they are a way of recognizing or honoring the sponsor or creator of a particular law (as with the 'Taft-Hartley Act'). And sometimes they are meant to garner political support for a law by giving it a catchy name (as with the 'USA Patriot Act' or the 'Take Pride in America Act') or by invoking public outrage or sympathy (as with any number of laws named for victims of crimes). History books, newspapers, and other sources use the popular name to refer to these laws. Why can't these popular names easily be found in the US Code?

How the US Code is built.

The United States Code is meant to be an organized, logical compilation of the laws passed by Congress. At its top level, it divides the world of legislation into fifty topically-organized Titles, and each Title is further subdivided into any number of logical subtopics. In theory, any law -- or individual provisions within any law -- passed by Congress should be classifiable into one or more slots in the framework of the Code. On the other hand, legislation often contains bundles of topically unrelated provisions that collectively respond to a particular public need or problem. A farm bill, for instance, might contain provisions that affect the tax status of farmers, their management of land or treatment of the environment, a system of price limits or supports, and so on. Each of these individual provisions would, logically, belong in a different place in the Code. (Of course, this isn't always the case; some legislation deals with a fairly narrow range of related concerns.)

The process of incorporating a newly-passed piece of legislation into the Code is known as "classification" -- essentially a process of deciding where in the logical organization of the Code the various parts of the particular law belong. Sometimes classification is easy; the law could be written with the Code in mind, and might specifically amend, extend, or repeal particular chunks of the existing Code, making it no great challenge to figure out how to classify its various parts. And as we said before, a particular law might be narrow in focus, making it both simple and sensible to move it wholesale into a particular slot in the Code. But this is not normally the case, and often different provisions of the law will logically belong in different, scattered locations in the Code. As a result, often the law will not be found in one place neatly identified by its popular name. Nor will a full-text search of the Code necessarily reveal where all the pieces have been scattered. Instead, those who classify laws into the Code typically leave a note explaining how a particular law has been classified into the Code. It is usually found in the Note section attached to a relevant section of the Code, usually under a paragraph identified as the "Short Title".

How the LII Table of Popular Names works.

Our Table of Popular Names is organized alphabetically by popular name. You'll find three types of link associated with each popular name (though each law may not have all three types). One, a reference to a Public Law number, is a link to the bill as it was originally passed by Congress, and will take you to the LRC THOMAS legislative system, or GPO FDSYS site. So-called "Short Title" links, and links to particular sections of the Code, will lead you to a textual roadmap (the section notes) describing how the particular law was incorporated into the Code. Finally, acts may be referred to by a different name, or may have been renamed, the links will take you to the appropriate listing in the table.

Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

Pub. L. 91-596, Dec. 29, 1970, 84 Stat. 1590 (29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.)

Short title, see 29 U.S.C. 651 note

Pub. L. 91-596

Classification

Pub. L. Section	Status	United States Code
		Title	Section	Authorizes
1		29	651 nt	29 CFR 42 1975 34 CFR 75 42 CFR 84
2		29	651	29 CFR 42 1975 34 CFR 75 42 CFR 84
3		29	652	29 CFR 42 1975 42 CFR 84
4		29	653	29 CFR 42 1910 1911 1912 1912a 1915 1917 1918 1919 1926 1928 1975 1990 42 CFR 84
5		29	654	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
6		29	655	29 CFR 42 1905 1910 1911 1912 1912a 1915 1917 1918 1919 1920 1926 1928 1990 40 CFR 311 42 CFR 84
7		29	656	29 CFR 42 1908 1912 1912a 42 CFR 84
8		29	657	29 CFR 42 1903 1904 1905 1908 1910 1911 1912 1912a 1913 1915 1917 1918 1919 1926 1928 1975 1977 1978 1990 30 CFR 11 42 CFR 84 85 85a 86 87
9		29	658	29 CFR 42 1903 1904 42 CFR 84
10		29	659	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
11		29	660	29 CFR 42 1904 1977 1978 42 CFR 84
12		29	661	29 CFR 42 2200 2201 2203 42 CFR 84
12(c)(1)		5	5314
12(c)(2)		5	5315
13		29	662	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
14		29	663	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
15		29	664	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
16		29	665	29 CFR 42 1905 42 CFR 84
17		29	666	29 CFR 42 1904 42 CFR 84
17(h)(1)		18	1114	28 CFR 64
17(h)(2)		18	1114 nt	28 CFR 64
18		29	667	29 CFR 42 1902 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 42 CFR 84
19		29	668	10 CFR 850 29 CFR 42 1960 42 CFR 84
19(c)		5	7902
20		29	669	29 CFR 42 1904 42 CFR 84
21		29	670	29 CFR 42 1908 1949 42 CFR 84 86
22		29	671	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
23		29	672	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
24		29	673	29 CFR 42 1904 1960 42 CFR 84
25		29	674	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
26		29	675	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
27	Elim.	29	676	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
28(a), (b)		15	636	13 CFR 120 121 123 124 14 CFR 1204 40 CFR 21 43 CFR 145 3420
28(c)		15	633	13 CFR 101 106 113 14 CFR 1204 33 CFR 25 43 CFR 145 3420
28(d)	Elim.	42	3142-1
29(a)		29	553
29(b)		5	5315
30		5	5108
31	Rev. T.	49	1421	14 CFR 63
32		29	677	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
33		29	678	29 CFR 42 42 CFR 84
34		29	651 nt	29 CFR 42 1975 34 CFR 75 42 CFR 84

TOPN: Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

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