PREFACE–1970 EDITION

This eighth edition of the United States Code was prepared and published pursuant to section 202 (c) of Title 1 of the Code. It contains a consolidation and codification of all the general and permanent laws of the United States which are in force on January 20, 1971. By statutory authority this edition may be cited “U.S.C. 1970 ed." Previous editions were published in 1926, 1934, 1940, 1946, 1952, 1958, and 1964.

Inasmuch as many of the general and permanent laws which are required to be incorporated in this Code are inconsistent, redundant, and obsolete, the Committee on the Judiciary is engaged in a comprehensive project of revising and enacting the Code into law, title by title. In furtherance of this plan bills have been enacted to revise, codify and enact into law Titles 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 23, 28, 32, 35, 37, 38, 39, and 44. In addition, bills relating to other titles are also being prepared for introduction. When this work is completed all the titles of the Code will be legal evidence of the general and permanent law and recourse to the numerous volumes of the Statutes at Large for this purpose will be unnecessary.

The title and chapter structure of the 1964 edition, together with Supplement V thereto, has been substantially preserved, the only changes made having been necessitated by the enactment of legislation since 1964.

In this edition numerous notes have been added captioned "Section referred to in other sections". These notes have been inserted following each section that is referred to in the text of another section, indicating the section that contains the internal reference. They should be extremely useful to the Congress, the bench and bar, and the public.

The actual work of preparing and editing the material for this edition was done by the West Publishing Co. of St. Paul, Minnesota, under the supervision of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives. West Publishing Co. prepared the original Code which Congress enacted in 1926 and has continuously served the Committee since that time in the preparation of the authorized new editions and Supplements to the Code. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editorial and manuscript staffs of the publishing company and of Joseph Fischer, Esq., the law revision counsel for the Committee, and his staff for their untiring efforts to make this edition as nearly perfect as possible. Acknowledgment of valuable assistance is made also to various officers of Government departments and agencies and the Government Printing Office for their helpful suggestions and criticisms.

The Committee on the Judiciary invites criticisms or suggestions with the view of improving the Code wherever possible. It is hoped that the program of enacting the entire Code, title by title, to improve its present status as merely prima facie evidence of the law, will meet with early success.

Getto Robertestautumani

Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary.

Chairman, Subcommittee No. 3,

Committee on the Judiciary.

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 2, 1971. Page x