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Central Nonpartisan Legislative Agencies: 76-1

IOWA CODE DIVISION

The Iowa Code Division is required by law to prepare and publish the Acts of the General Assembly (commonly referred to as the Session Laws). This is the official manuscript copy and comprehensive index of all Acts and Joint Resolutions passed at each session of the General Assembly. The Division also publishes The Code of Iowa, which contains all the general and permanent laws of the state. In publishing the Code, the Iowa Code Editor must examine and apply each Act of the General Assembly to the body of existing law, eliminating all special and private Acts and the parts of the general Acts that may be temporary in nature. The Iowa Code Editor must determine the location of new legislative enactments and assign chapter and section numbers as well as supply section headings, historical references and cross-references to enable the searcher in the law to trace the sources and origins of the legislative enactments. Tables of disposition of session laws and tables of corresponding sections of session laws and codes are also included in the Code. A comprehensive and detailed index to the Code is also prepared and published with the Code every two years. The first Code was published in 1851 and the Codes have been continuously kept up to date since then. Until 1924, each new Code was separately authorized by the General Assembly and a new editor appointed for each. In 1924, the position was made permanent and the law changed to provide publication every four years. The statute was amended in 1970 to provide for the Code to be published every two years. In the alternate years when the Code is not published, a Supplement to the Iowa Code is published.

The Division is also required to submit such recommendations as are deemed proper to each General Assembly for the purpose of amending, revising and codifying such portions of the law as may be conflicting, redundant or ambiguous.

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Last update: 1995
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