31 USC § 1501 - Documentary evidence requirement for Government obligations | Title 31 - Money and Finance | U.S. Code

USCPrelim is a preliminary release and may be subject to further revision before it is released again as a final version.

Current through Pub. L. 112-283. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

(a) An amount shall be recorded as an obligation of the United States Government only when supported by documentary evidence of—

(1) a binding agreement between an agency and another person (including an agency) that is—

(A) in writing, in a way and form, and for a purpose authorized by law; and

(B) executed before the end of the period of availability for obligation of the appropriation or fund used for specific goods to be delivered, real property to be bought or leased, or work or service to be provided;

(2) a loan agreement showing the amount and terms of repayment;

(3) an order required by law to be placed with an agency;

(4) an order issued under a law authorizing purchases without advertising—

(A) when necessary because of a public exigency;

(B) for perishable subsistence supplies; or

(C) within specific monetary limits;

(5) a grant or subsidy payable—

(A) from appropriations made for payment of, or contributions to, amounts required to be paid in specific amounts fixed by law or under formulas prescribed by law;

(B) under an agreement authorized by law; or

(C) under plans approved consistent with and authorized by law;

(6) a liability that may result from pending litigation;

(7) employment or services of persons or expenses of travel under law;

(8) services provided by public utilities; or

(9) other legal liability of the Government against an available appropriation or fund.

(b) A statement of obligations provided to Congress or a committee of Congress by an agency shall include only those amounts that are obligations consistent with subsection (a) of this section.

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(a) An amount shall be recorded as an obligation of the United States Government only when supported by documentary evidence of—

(1) a binding agreement between an agency and another person (including an agency) that is—

(A) in writing, in a way and form, and for a purpose authorized by law; and

(B) executed before the end of the period of availability for obligation of the appropriation or fund used for specific goods to be delivered, real property to be bought or leased, or work or service to be provided;

(2) a loan agreement showing the amount and terms of repayment;

(3) an order required by law to be placed with an agency;

(4) an order issued under a law authorizing purchases without advertising—

(A) when necessary because of a public exigency;

(B) for perishable subsistence supplies; or

(C) within specific monetary limits;

(5) a grant or subsidy payable—

(A) from appropriations made for payment of, or contributions to, amounts required to be paid in specific amounts fixed by law or under formulas prescribed by law;

(B) under an agreement authorized by law; or

(C) under plans approved consistent with and authorized by law;

(6) a liability that may result from pending litigation;

(7) employment or services of persons or expenses of travel under law;

(8) services provided by public utilities; or

(9) other legal liability of the Government against an available appropriation or fund.

(b) A statement of obligations provided to Congress or a committee of Congress by an agency shall include only those amounts that are obligations consistent with subsection (a) of this section.

Source

(Pub. L. 97–258, Sept. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 927.)

Historical and Revision Notes
Revised Section	Source (U.S. Code)	Source (Statutes at Large)
1501(a)	31:200(a).	Aug. 26, 1954, ch. 935, § 1311(a), (e), 68 Stat. 830, 831.
1501(b)	31:200(e).

In subsection (a), before clause (1), the words “After August 26, 1954” are omitted as executed. In clause (1), the words “an agency and another person (including an agency)” are substituted for “the parties thereto, including Government agencies” for clarity. In clause (2), the word “valid” is omitted as unnecessary. In clause (6), the words “brought under authority of law” are omitted as surplus. In clause (9), the word “legally” is omitted as surplus.

In subsection (b), the words “consistent with” are substituted for “as defined in” for clarity and for consistency with section 1108 of the revised title. The word “valid” is omitted as unnecessary.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Wednesday, February 6, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

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General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

31 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

31 USC § 1501 - Documentary evidence requirement for Government obligations

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