Congress has thrown out four acts of the D.C. Council since home rule began, and the most recent was an overhaul of the District's criminal law. The Mayor vetoed it, the Council overrode the veto, and it still never became law.
So before you read what a piece of D.C. legislation says, find out whether it got all the way through.
Three numbers for one piece of legislation
A D.C. measure changes its name twice on the way to the statute book.
It starts as a bill. The Council has to read it twice, with at least 13 days between readings. Once the Mayor signs it, or the Council overrides a veto, it picks up an act number, and the Chairman sends a copy to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. Only after that review ends does it get a law number.
Take the Prior Authorization Reform Amendment Act of 2023. It was Bill 25-124. It became D.C. Act 25-301 on November 15, 2023. It became D.C. Law 25-100 on January 17, 2024.
Same text, three numbers, none of them matching. The 25 in front is the Council period, which runs two years, and Council Period 25 covered 2023 and 2024. After that the sequences drift, because acts get numbered as they are signed and laws get numbered as they take effect.
The Council's own law library handles this quietly. Ask it for an act number and it sends you to the law that act became. Ask it for an act Congress killed and there is nothing at that address.
The review clock is not a calendar
Section 602(c) of the Home Rule Act, which you will find in the code as D.C. Code § 1-206.02(c), sets two periods.
Most acts get 30 days. Acts codified in Title 22, 23 or 24 of the D.C. Code, meaning crimes, criminal procedure and prisoners, get 60.
The 30 is the odd one. The statute excludes Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and any day when neither chamber is in session because of a recess or an adjournment longer than three days. That is why Act 25-301 went up on November 15 and the law took effect on January 17. Nine weeks, for a thirty day period. The 60 day paragraph has no exclusions written into it at all.
Which of those two clocks would you bet runs longer on a wall calendar? It depends entirely on how much Congress is in town.
Two other kinds of act sit outside the usual path. An emergency act passes on a single reading with a two thirds vote, skips congressional review and lasts no more than 90 days. A temporary act does go through review, and carries its own expiry, usually 225 days. The Council often passes an emergency and a temporary version of the same policy together, so finding near-identical D.C. acts with the same title is normal rather than a sign something went wrong.
Who publishes what
The D.C. Official Code is prepared and published under the direction of the Council, under D.C. Code § 45-102. It carries the general and permanent laws in force in the District whether Congress wrote them or the Council did.
That shows up in the credit line under each section. Section 1-206.02 traces to 87 Stat. 813, a 1973 Act of Congress. Section 50-1501.01 traces to 50 Stat. 679, an Act of Congress from 1937. Section 2-1381 traces to D.C. Law 16-89. One code, two legislatures, and the credit line is the only thing telling you which one you are dealing with.
Regulations are a different office's job. The Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances publishes and certifies the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations, along with the D.C. Register, the weekly bulletin that carries new rulemakings until they are folded into the DCMR. The DCMR runs to 31 titles, and some titles break into lettered subtitles, so a correct cite can read 5-A DCMR rather than 5 DCMR.
Writing the cites
Statutes look like D.C. Code § 11-721(a)(2)(A). Add a year only when you mean a historical version of the section. Regulations follow the same convention and read 1 D.C.M.R. § 2800, or 5-A D.C.M.R. § 100(a)(3).
Acts and laws both carry a Register cite. An act reads D.C. Act 23-328, 67 D.C. Reg. 7598 (June 19, 2020). A law reads D.C. Law 10-177, § 3, 41 D.C. Reg. 524 (1995).
How much of it is dead
The District's statute corpus runs to 23,695 sections, and 4,960 of those are repealed. Call it a fifth of the book.
Regulations are bigger at 27,093 sections, of which 22,914 carry an in force marker. The count worth knowing there is 2,514, the number of sections marked reserved. A reserved section is a numbered hole with no text in it, held open so the numbering does not shift when something comes out. Run citations against the corpus and reserved sections will look like hits and read like nothing.
Court rules add 1,128 sections. Everything together, including the attorney general opinions and the agency guidance, comes to 51,980.
A run you can repeat in five minutes
Pick any D.C. law on the Council's law library site and scroll to the legislative history block at the foot of the page. It gives you the bill number, both reading dates, the act number, the date the act went to Congress and the date the law took effect.
Subtract the act date from the effective date. Do it once for an ordinary act and once for something codified in Title 22, 23 or 24. You will see the two clocks, and you will stop trying to work out D.C. effective dates in your head.
What to watch for
An act is not a law. If a brief or a memo cites a D.C. Act number, find out what became of it before you rely on it.
Never calculate a D.C. effective date yourself. Read the one the Council publishes.
The D.C. Register and the DCMR are not the same source. One is the weekly bulletin, the other is the compiled code, and a citation to the wrong one sends your reader to the wrong place.
The subtitle letter is part of a DCMR citation, not a label on the side of it.
And a D.C. Code section may have no D.C. Law behind it at all, because Congress can still legislate for the District directly. Read the credit line before you go hunting for a Council act that was never there.
Facts used
All District of Columbia corpus counts below are from Vaquill AI's US primary law data, measured 2026-09-18.
| Claim | Value | Where from |
|---|---|---|
| Total District of Columbia sections of primary law | 51,980 | Corpus counts, 2026-09-18 |
| Statute sections | 23,695 (18,614 in force, 4,960 repealed) | Corpus status counts, 2026-09-18 |
| Regulation sections | 27,093 (22,914 in force, 2,514 reserved) | Corpus status counts, 2026-09-18 |
| Court rule sections | 1,128 | Corpus counts, 2026-09-18 |
| Congress has nullified four acts of the Council under section 602(c) | Verified | Editor's note, published text of D.C. Code § 1-206.02 |
| Most recent was the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022, D.C. Act 24-789, disapproval effective March 20, 2023 | Verified | Editor's note, published text of D.C. Code § 1-206.02 |
| Mayoral veto January 3, 2023, Council override January 17, 2023 | Verified | Editor's note, published text of D.C. Code § 1-206.02 |
| Review period of 30 calendar days, excluding weekends, holidays and days neither chamber is in session | D.C. Code § 1-206.02(c)(1) | Published section text |
| Review period of 60 days for acts codified in Title 22, 23 or 24, with no exclusions | D.C. Code § 1-206.02(c)(2) | Published section text |
| Acts transmitted by the Council Chairman to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate | D.C. Code § 1-206.02(c)(1) | Published section text |
| Two readings at least 13 days apart | D.C. Code § 1-204.12(a) | Published section text |
| Emergency acts effective for no more than 90 days | D.C. Code § 1-204.12(a) | Published section text |
| Temporary acts go through review and usually expire after 225 days | Verified | Editor's note, published text of D.C. Code § 1-204.12 |
| Bill 25-124 became D.C. Act 25-301 on Nov 15 2023 and D.C. Law 25-100 on Jan 17 2024 | Verified | Legislative history block, D.C. Law 25-100 |
| Council Period 25 covered 2023 and 2024 | Verified | Council period index, D.C. Law Library |
| An act number on the Council's site resolves to the law it became | Verified | Tested, act 25-160 resolves to D.C. Law 25-45 |
| The Code is published under the direction of the Council and carries laws enacted by Congress and by the Council | D.C. Code § 45-102(a) | Published section text |
| Credit lines cite 87 Stat. 813 and 50 Stat. 679 for congressionally enacted sections | Verified | Published text of D.C. Code § 1-206.02 and D.C. Law 25-45 |
| DCMR contains 31 titles, published and certified by the Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances | Verified | Office of the Secretary, DCMR and Register page |
| The D.C. Register is the weekly official bulletin and the temporary supplement to the DCMR | Verified | Office of the Secretary, DCMR and Register page |
| Statute cite form, with a year only for historical versions | D.C. Code § 11-721(a)(2)(A) | D.C. Court of Appeals style and citation guide |
| Regulation cite forms, including lettered subtitles | 1 D.C.M.R. § 2800 and 5-A D.C.M.R. § 100(a)(3) | D.C. Court of Appeals style and citation guide |
| Act and law cite forms | D.C. Act 23-328, 67 D.C. Reg. 7598 (June 19, 2020) and D.C. Law 10-177, § 3, 41 D.C. Reg. 524 (1995) | D.C. Court of Appeals style and citation guide |
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