Laws — Read Me First
The statutes that authorize and constrain everything in the other three regulatory sections of this vault.
Hierarchy: Statutes (U.S. Code) authorize regulations (CFR) which create the rules under which agencies procure (FAR/DFARS) and operate. When a client asks “where is that rule from?” you trace it up this stack until you hit a statute.
Sections
USC — U.S. Code
The codified federal statutes, organized by subject into 54 titles. This is the authoritative, permanent compilation of general laws enacted by Congress. Source: Cornell Legal Information Institute (law.cornell.edu/uscode/text), pulled and maintained by far-sync.
Filename convention: 10 USC 4022.md. Wikilink-ready — type
[[10 USC 4022]] in a memo and it resolves to the note.
Every FAR and DFARS clause traces back to statutory authority. Common tracebacks from the acquisition side:
| FAR/DFARS | Statutory authority |
|---|---|
| FAR Part 12 (commercial items) | 10 USC 3453 (DoD) / 41 USC 1906 (civilian) |
| FAR Part 15 (negotiation, TINA) | 10 USC 3701 / 41 USC 3501 |
| FAR Part 19 (small business) | 15 USC 644 (Small Business Act §15) |
| FAR Part 33 (protests) | 31 USC 3551 (CICA protest authority) |
| DFARS 252.227-7013 (tech data) | 10 USC 3771–3775 |
| DFARS Part 225 Berry Amendment | 10 USC 4862 |
| Specialty metals | 10 USC 4863 |
| Anti-Deficiency Act | 31 USC 1341 |
| Bona Fide Needs Rule | 31 USC 1502 |
| SBIR / STTR | 15 USC 638 |
| Other Transaction Authority | 10 USC 4022 (prototype) / 10 USC 4021 (R&D) |
| CFIUS | 50 USC 4565 |
Public Laws/
Enacted public laws by session and number (e.g., Pub. L. 117-263
for FY23 NDAA). Not every PL is codified into the U.S. Code; some
sit as uncodified “notes” attached to USC sections. Annual NDAAs
are here because they drive a large fraction of DoD policy each
year before the text filters into DFARS via rulemaking.
Executive Orders/
Presidential executive orders that drive regulatory change. Examples that matter for defense contractors:
- EO 14028 (May 2021) — Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. Drove much of the current federal cyber agenda including software supply chain requirements.
- EO 13873 (May 2019) — Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain. Basis for Section 889 and similar prohibitions.
- EO 14034, EO 14017, EO 14110 — supply chain resilience, critical minerals, AI safety.
Why this section exists
Three reasons:
- Traceability. When a CO cites FAR 52.204-21, the question why does this clause exist? traces to Executive Order 13556 (CUI) and ultimately to statutes authorizing classified-information and information-security programs. Knowing the statutory root matters for arguing the clause doesn’t apply, for negotiating scope, and for litigating interpretation.
- Wikilink resolution. Memos that cite “10 USC 2533b” should have that link resolve to live statutory text, not a dead reference.
- Amendment tracking. Same git-tracked amendment history as the regs. When Congress amends 10 USC 4022, the next sync commits a diff and you can see what changed.
Pipeline
U.S. Code pulls from Cornell LII. The Cornell URL pattern is predictable:
- Section-level page:
law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/{title}/{section} - Title index:
law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/{title}
The scraper parses the HTML (which has a clean, stable structure),
extracts section text with paragraph lettering preserved verbatim
(same non-negotiable as FAR: no paraphrasing of statutory text),
and writes markdown notes under Laws/USC/Title N/.
Public Laws come from Congress.gov or govinfo.gov (official PDF / XML).
Executive Orders come from the Federal Register (which IS where EOs are officially published — they appear as Presidential documents).
Status
Folder scaffolding. The USC ingester is the next build. See far-sync — the existing pipeline will be extended with a USC-scraper module.