United States Congress

Congress is the bicameral federal legislature of the United States, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It appears here as the body that enacted a requirement this practice works under, not as a subject of study.

Where it is used here

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act exists because Congress put it there: added to the Rehabilitation Act by amendment in 1986, and substantially rewritten in 1998. The statute delegates the technical detail to standards published elsewhere, which is why conformance is judged against a guidelines document rather than against the law.

Why the distinction matters

Most confusion about a policy comes from misreading which body could actually enact it. A statutory requirement, an agency rule, and a procurement preference constrain work differently and change on different timescales — and only the first needs Congress. Keeping the enacting body explicit is what makes that legible from a page about the policy.

What this page is not

It is not a description of how Congress works, and nothing here should be read as an account of legislative process or intent. It records one fact the graph needs: that a policy referenced by this site has an enacting body, and which one.