HR-5210-119
Ordered to be Reported by Voice Vote.
Sponsored by Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
What it does
This bill would correct outdated cross-references in federal statutes, replacing old U.S. Code citations (mostly in title 2, title 50, and title 52) with the correct current citation numbers after those provisions were renumbered or reclassified. It makes no substantive policy changes—it only fixes citation errors so that laws point to the correct section numbers.
Who benefits
Legal researchers, courts, congressional staff, and agency lawyers who rely on accurate statutory citations to interpret and apply the law; the general public benefits indirectly from reduced confusion and litigation risk caused by outdated cross-references.
Who is hurt
No group is meaningfully harmed. The changes are purely technical and do not alter any substantive rights, obligations, funding, or enforcement mechanisms.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that outdated statutory cross-references create confusion for courts, agencies, and the public trying to locate the current law, and that periodic technical corrections bills like this one are a routine, necessary housekeeping function of Congress. They contend fixing dozens of stale citations in one bill is more efficient than piecemeal fixes scattered across future legislation.
Opponents argue
Opponents might argue that even purely technical amendments carry some risk of introducing new errors into complex cross-referenced statutes, and that such corrections consume committee and floor time that could go to substantive legislative priorities. They contend that technical corrections bills, while low-risk, still require careful verification to avoid unintended consequences to the statutes being cited.
Constitutional context
This bill raises no constitutional question beyond Congress's general Article I authority to enact and maintain the statutes it has already passed; it does not create, transfer, or reassign any governmental power.
Checks and balances
No branch gains or loses authority; Congress is simply correcting its own prior statutory text, and no new executive, judicial, or legislative power is created.
Historical precedent
Congress regularly enacts technical corrections and codification bills to fix citation errors after code reclassifications, such as periodic title 50 and title 52 recodification cleanup measures.