A statute is a bill that has been enacted into law (P.L.).
Elements: Name of the Statute, Title number Source § Section number(s) (Year).
Example: Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601-2654 (2006).
Elements: Title (year).
Example: Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (2006) or (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 2006).
If the policy you choose is a public law, please follow the instructions for citing statutes.
Elements: Organization that made the policy. (year). Title of the policy (Policy No. ## if applicable). URL.
Example: American Heart Association (2019). Ethics policy. https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/statements-and-policies/american-heart-association-ethics-policy-details.
Elements: (Organization that made the policy, year).
Example: (American Heart Association, 2019).
Government Report
Elements: Government author. (year). Title of report: Subtitle of report if applicable (Report No. ###). URL.
Example: Veterans Health Administration. (2013). National Veteran Health Equity Report: FY2013. https://www.va.gov/healthequity/NVHER.asp.
Elements: (Government author, year).
Example: (Veterans Health Administration, 2013)
Bills that have been been passed into law need to be cited as public laws (see the discussion of statutes below), unless you are referring to a historical piece of the legislative process.
Elements: Title [if relevant], bill or resolution number, xxx Cong. (year).
Example: Presidential Funding Act of 2010, S. 3681, 111th Cong. (2010) or
Without the title it would look like this: S. 3681, 111th Cong. (2010).
Elements: Title (year).
Example: Senate Bill 3681 (2010) or (S. 3681, 2010)
APA does not specialize in legal citations. If your citation varies from the examples on this page, APA suggest that authors consult the Bluebook, a uniform system of citation commonly used in legal writing.
Read the APA blog entry on legal citation from the archived APA 6th Style Blog. While APA 7th edition provides more examples of legal citations, it does not appear that the guidance itself has changed.
The Texas legislature recognizes the following citation manuals:
A government website will be cited the same way as any other website in APA.
Elements: Entity Name. (date). Title of document [Format description (optional)]. URL.
Example: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, April 6). Health in all policies. https://www.cdc.gov/policy/hiap/index.html
Elements: (Entity Name, year).
Example: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2017) or (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017).
No date
Elements
Four types of legislation Bills
Simple Resolutions
Concurrent Resolutions
Joint Resolutions
Find more information and detailed definitions on the GovInfo.gov.
