PREFACE-1994 EDITION

This twelfth edition of the United States Code, prepared and published pursuant to section 285b of Title 2 of the Code, is a consolidation and codification of all the general and permanent laws of the United States in force on January 4, 1995. By statutory authority, this edition may be cited "U.S.C. 1994 ed.". Previous editions were published in 1926, 1934, 1940, 1946, 1952, 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, and 1988.

Because many of the general and permanent laws that are required to be incorporated in the Code are inconsistent, redundant, and obsolete, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives has been engaged in a continuing, comprehensive project authorized by law to revise and codify, for enactment into positive law, each title of the Code. When this project is completed, all the titles of the Code will be legal evidence of the general and permanent laws and recourse to the numerous volumes of the United States Statutes at Large for this purpose will no longer be necessary. Titles 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 23, 28, 31, 32, 35, 37, 38, 39, 44, 46, and 49 have been revised, codified, and enacted into positive law and the text thereof is legal evidence of the laws therein contained. The matter contained in the other titles of the Code is prima facie evidence of the laws.

The title and chapter structure of the 1988 edition, together with Supplement V thereto, has been substantially preserved, the only changes made having been necessitated by the enactment of legislation since 1988.

This edition was prepared and published under the supervision of Edward F. Willett, Jr., Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives, with the assistance of the West Publishing Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, which assisted in preparing all prior editions and supplements of the Code. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the staffs of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, the West Publishing Company, and the Government Printing Office for their untiring efforts and cooperation.

Nent Gingish

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 4, 1995.

Speaker of the House of Representatives

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