Editing Act of Congress (section)

== Public law, private law, designation ==
[[File:Private Law 86-407.jpg|thumb|Private Law 86–407]]
[[File:Page 212 from STATUTE-073-1-2 Public Law 86-90.pdf|thumb|Part of Public Law 86–90]]
In the United States, acts of Congress are designated as either '''public laws''', relating to the general public, or '''private laws''', relating to specific institutions or individuals. Since 1957, all Acts of Congress have been designated as "Public Law X–Y" or "Private Law X–Y", where X is the number of the Congress and Y refers to the sequential order of the bill (when it was enacted).<ref>{{cite web
 | url = http://www.lexisnexis.com/help/cu/Serial_Set/About_Bills.htm#pub
 | title = About Bills, Resolutions, and Laws
 | quote = About Public Laws
 | publisher = [[LexisNexis]]
 | year = 2007
 | access-date = 2008-09-04
}}</ref> For example, P. L. 111–5 ([[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009]]) was the fifth enacted public law of the [[111th United States Congress]]. Public laws are also often abbreviated as Pub. L. No. X–Y.

When the legislation of those two kinds are proposed, it is called [[public bill]] and [[private bill]] respectively.