united-states congress bills
A better tool for reading law than congress.gov
<p>I am looking at the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3877/text" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019</a>, and interested in discovering how much spending the budget covers.</p>

<p>Early in the bill, there is a reference to existing legislation: "--Section 251(c) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(c)) is amended by striking paragraphs (7) and (8) and inserting the following: ...", but the amended bill is not linked anywhere and <a href="https://www.congress.gov/search?q=%7B%22source%22:%22legislation%22,%22search%22:%22%5C%22Balanced%20Budget%20and%20Emergency%20Deficit%20Control%20Act%20of%201985%5C%22%22%7D&amp;searchResultViewType=expanded&amp;KWICView=false" rel="nofollow noreferrer">my search</a> failed to turn anything up. </p>

<p>What tools do people usually use for reading legislation? I am thinking about trying to build one if this is as good as it gets, but I expect I am just looking in the wrong place.</p>

<p>There a few places; this particular statute, for example, can be found <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/901" rel="nofollow noreferrer">on Cornell's legal site</a> or on <a href="https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Balanced%20Budget%20And%20Emergency%20Deficit%20Control%20Act%20Of%201985--(Part%20C).pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">that of the House</a>.</p>

<p><a href="https://uslaw.link" rel="nofollow noreferrer">uslaw.link</a> is the best tool I've found so far for looking up citations. Cornell's legal site @Jack Fleeting linked is the best free site I've found so far. It has some references to other documents linked and tries to give definitions to some terms used in the text.</p>

<p>From asking around a bit, it sounds like legal professionals use <a href="https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/westlaw" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WestLaw</a> or <a href="https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/westlaw" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lexis</a>. I'm not aware of better tools for reading law as a layperson.</p>
