First, the easy way: PERRLA
Paste the bill's Congress.gov link into PERRLA's reference search, like https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2530. PERRLA reads the page and fills in the bill's name, the chamber, the bill number, the Congress, the year, and the link. MLA gives the full date, so add the month and day the bill was introduced (Congress.gov lists it next to the sponsor), type the session in Congressional Number Session, and type Congress.gov in Website Name. The session is printed at the top of the bill's text, like "1st Session."
Adding one by hand? Choose Bills & Resolutions (under Legal References), then An unenacted federal bill or resolution. Pick House of Representatives bill for an H.R. bill or Senate bill for an S. bill. Fill in the Bill or Resolution Title, the Bill or Resolution Number (the number only), the Congress number in Congressional Session (118 or 118th), the session in Congressional Number Session (1st or 2nd), the date the bill was introduced, the URL (Web address), and the site's name in Website Name (Congress.gov). PERRLA starts the entry with United States, Congress, House or Senate, sets the website in italics, spells out House Bill or Senate Bill, and writes the date day, month, year.
If the bill became law, choose Statutes instead and cite the public law or the U.S. Code.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2530
United States, Congress, House. Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023. Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2530. 118th Congress, 1st session, House Bill 2530, considered 6 Apr. 2023.
Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.
The parts of the works cited entry
1. Author
A bill comes from a government body, so MLA lists the government first, then each smaller unit, separated by commas: the country, Congress, and the chamber where the bill was introduced. End with a period.
United States, Congress, House.
Use Senate for a bill numbered S. The chamber is where the bill started, so a Senate bill stays Senate even after the House takes it up. Don't list the sponsor as the author: the bill belongs to the chamber, not to the member who introduced it.
2. Name of the bill
Next comes the bill's name, as the bill gives it, usually in a section that begins "This Act may be cited as." Keep any year that's part of the name. MLA sets the names of laws, acts, and bills in plain type and title case, with no italics and no quotation marks, even though the bill sits inside a larger website.
Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023.
Some bills have only a long official title, like "To amend the Public Health Service Act to...." Use it as the title if it's all the bill has. Congress.gov shows the short name, when there is one, at the top of the bill's page.
3. Website and URL
Where you read the bill is its container. For Congress.gov, the Library of Congress's official site for federal legislation, give the site's name in italics, a comma, and the URL without https://, then a period.
Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2530.
Read the bill's text on GovInfo instead? Name that site, GovInfo, and use its URL. MLA cites the version you consulted.
4. Congress and session
The last part of the entry identifies the bill. Start with the number of the Congress that considered it, as an ordinal, with the word Congress spelled out, then the session. Each Congress lasts two years and usually has two sessions, one per year. Bill numbers start over with each new Congress, so this is what tells your reader which H.R. 2530 you mean.
118th Congress, 1st session,
MLA uses ordinary ordinals: 103rd Congress and 2nd session, not the legal forms 103d and 2d you see in APA. The bill's text shows both at the top: "118th CONGRESS, 1st Session."
5. Bill number
Spell out the chamber and the word bill, then give the number: House Bill 2530 or Senate Bill 1113. MLA writes it out instead of the abbreviations H.R. and S. that Congress.gov and legal citations use.
House Bill 2530,
6. Status and date
End with a word for where the bill stands and the date, written day, month, year, with the month abbreviated (except May, June, and July), then a period. MLA's own example uses passed and the date of the vote for a bill that passed its chamber. For a bill that was introduced and never voted on, PERRLA writes considered with the date it was introduced.
considered 6 Apr. 2023.
The date has to fall inside the Congress's two years: a 118th Congress bill is from 2023 or 2024.
Examples
A House bill
The 2023 House bill that would set nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in hospitals, introduced on 6 April 2023 in the first session of the 118th Congress. It never got past committee, so it's cited as a bill.
Works Cited
United States, Congress, House. Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023. Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2530. 118th Congress, 1st session, House Bill 2530, considered 6 Apr. 2023.
- In-text citation(United States, Congress, House)
- Narrative citationIn the United States House of Representatives, the Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023 would …
The same bill in the Senate
The Senate version of the same nurse staffing bill, introduced a week earlier, on 30 March 2023. Identical bills in the two chambers get different numbers and different authors, so this entry starts with Senate and ends with Senate Bill 1113. Cite the version you actually read.
Works Cited
United States, Congress, Senate. Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023. Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1113. 118th Congress, 1st session, Senate Bill 1113, considered 30 Mar. 2023.
- In-text citation(United States, Congress, Senate)
- Narrative citationIn the United States Senate, the Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023 would …
An older bill: the 1993 Health Security Act
The Clinton administration's universal health coverage plan, introduced in the House on 20 November 1993, in the first session of the 103rd Congress. It never became law, so it's still cited as a bill. MLA writes the Congress as 103rd, the ordinary way.
Works Cited
United States, Congress, House. Health Security Act. Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/3600. 103rd Congress, 1st session, House Bill 3600, considered 20 Nov. 1993.
- In-text citation(United States, Congress, House)
- Narrative citationIn the Health Security Act, the United States House of Representatives proposed …
In-text citations
An MLA 9 in-text citation points to the first words of the Works Cited entry. For a bill, that's the author element, the government and the chamber, not the bill's name and not a year. Bills have no page numbers, so there's no number to add.
- Parenthetical: (United States, Congress, House) or (United States, Congress, Senate)
- Name in your sentence: the smoothest choice. Name the chamber and the bill, and leave the parentheses off: In the United States House of Representatives, the Health Security Act would have guaranteed coverage to every American.
- More than one bill from the same chamber: every entry starts the same way, so add a short form of the bill's name: (United States, Congress, House, Health Security Act).
Write the bill's name in plain type in your sentences, never in italics.
Common mistakes
- Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023, H.R. 2530, 118th Cong. (2023).United States, Congress, House. Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023. Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2530. 118th Congress, 1st session, House Bill 2530, considered 6 Apr. 2023.That's the legal citation form APA uses. MLA follows its own template: the government author first, the website as the container, and the bill number spelled out at the end.
- United States, Congress, House. Health Security Act.United States, Congress, House. Health Security Act.MLA sets the names of laws, acts, and bills in plain type, in your sentences and in the Works Cited entry. Italics are for court cases, not bills.
- 103d Congress, 1st session, House Bill 3600,103rd Congress, 1st session, House Bill 3600,103d is the legal form APA uses. MLA writes ordinals the ordinary way: 102nd, 103rd, 118th.
- (Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act, 2023)(United States, Congress, House)MLA's in-text citation points to the first element of the entry, which is the author, and MLA citations don't take the year. Put the bill's name in your sentence instead.
- United States, Congress, House. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/3590. 111th Congress, House Bill 3590.United States, Congress. Public Law 111-148. United States Statutes at Large, vol. 124, 2010, pp. 119–1024. U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-124/pdf/STATUTE-124-Pg119.pdf.H.R. 3590 became the Affordable Care Act. Once a bill is signed, it's a law, so cite the public law or the U.S. Code.
Quick checklist
- Still a bill? If it became law, cite the law instead
- United States, Congress, and the chamber as the author
- The bill's name in plain type and title case
- Congress.gov in italics, then the URL
- The Congress and the session as ordinals, like 118th Congress, 1st session
- House Bill or Senate Bill and the number, spelled out
- The status and the date, day, month, year
Questions students ask
How do I cite a bill that became law in MLA?
Cite the law, not the bill. The bill's Congress.gov page says "Became Public Law No." in its latest action. Use that number to cite the public law in the Statutes at Large, or cite the section of the U.S. Code you read. See the guide to citing a federal law.
What does 118th Congress, 1st session mean?
The 118th Congress is the two-year term of Congress that ran from 2023 through 2024. Each Congress usually meets in two sessions, one a year, so a bill introduced in 2023 is from the 1st session. Bill numbers start over every Congress, so these details tell your reader exactly which bill you mean.
Why does the entry start with United States, Congress, House?
MLA treats a bill as a work by a government body. The author element names the government first and then each smaller unit, so a House bill is United States, Congress, House. It also keeps all your federal sources together on the Works Cited page.
A bill passed the House but not the Senate. Is it a law?
No. A bill becomes law only after both chambers pass the same text and the president signs it, lets it become law without signing, or is overridden by Congress. A bill that passed one chamber, failed a vote, or died in committee is still a bill. Give its status and date at the end of the entry, like passed 6 Dec. 2016.
How do I cite a state bill in MLA?
Start with the state and the legislature, like Wisconsin State, Legislature, then the bill's name or number (Senate Bill 5), the legislature's website in italics, the date, and the URL. In PERRLA, choose Bills & Resolutions, then Unenacted state bill or resolution or Enacted state bill or resolution.
Where does a bill go on my Works Cited page?
Under U, for United States, with your other federal sources. When several entries start with the same government name, order them by the next words: United States, Congress, House comes before United States, Congress, Senate.
Related guides
Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, containers, and government authors) and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's post Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style (follow the MLA template; cite the version you consulted; names of laws and acts in plain type; its federal bill example from Congress.gov and its state bill examples). Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page, with the introduction dates and sessions checked in each bill's official bill status record and bill text on GovInfo (H.R. 2530 and S. 1113, 118th Congress, 1st Session, 6 Apr. and 30 Mar. 2023; H.R. 3600, 103rd Congress, 1st Session, 20 Nov. 1993).