How to Cite a Government Document in MLA

How to Cite a Government Document in MLA: Quick Answer

Pick the path that matches the paper. A literature essay that cites one labor handbook can begin U.S. Department of Labor, exactly as the title page reads. A thesis that cites six congressional files should standardize those names as United States, Congress, then the chamber and committee. In both paths, the title, the publisher as printed, and the date of the copy you opened come next. Congress, session, and report numbers are optional extras at the end of a legislative entry. An online file adds the site name and that version's URL or DOI. Pair every Works Cited line with an in-text citation that uses the same opening name, or a shortened title when the entry begins with the title.

Italicize a self-contained report the way you would italicize a book. Leave laws, acts, and political documents in roman type. Italicize court-case names. Do not invent a 2026 House report to fill a template. Use a document a reader can open. For the assigned style landing page and generator, start at MLA.

The Official Rule, from the MLA Handbook

The current student handbook is the MLA Handbook, 9th edition, published by the Modern Language Association in 2021. Government authors sit in sections 5.20–5.22. Corporate authors sit next to them in 5.17–19. In-text forms for those names are in section 6.6. The Style Center's older posts still mention eighth-edition section 2.1.3; the ninth-edition numbers above replace that map. Several of those posts still carry this banner:

Use the live Style Center examples. Read the ninth-edition sections when the post's numbering and the handbook disagree. Section 5.20 is the sentence most student pages skip.

That Occupational Outlook Handbook line is a real Skyhorse reprint of the federal handbook. The author slot copies U.S. Department of Labor from the source. It does not rebuild the string as United States, Department of Labor. The specialist form is the next section, not a correction of this one.

The Official Rule, from the MLA Style Center

The Style Center's congressional-documents note was written against the 8th-edition numbering, but the 9th edition keeps the same format template: author, title, publisher, date, then optional extras. The worked examples below are the ones the editors published.

Those sentences are from How do I cite a congressional document in print and online?. House Report 109-615 is a real June 2006 Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report, later submitted to the House on 6 September 2006 and still posted on govinfo. The optional slot is how you keep a Congress number and a report number without turning MLA into Bluebook. Handbook §5.118 now states the same option.

Those sentences are from Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style, opened again on 18 September 2026. They are why a Cornell Law page, a Library of Congress PDF, and a govinfo.gov statute are three different Works Cited lines even when they reprint the same opinion or act. The parenthetical page numbers 70 and 69 are the Style Center's pointers into the handbook's title-styling pages. The live page now also prints a Tennessee house-bill access date of 6 May 2026; that line is in the state-documents section below.

That exchange is from If I am listing the name of a government agency as publisher, should I separate out the name of the government?. Australia's Welfare, 2017 is a real Australian Institute of Health and Welfare yearbook. The editors start with the title because the agency is the publisher, not because government authors are optional. When the agency is the author, keep the name the path requires and leave the Publisher slot as printed. Handbook §5.63 adds a second publisher rule for long agency stacks.

Matthew R. Durose and colleagues wrote that Bureau of Justice Statistics report. The people occupy the Author slot. The publisher is truncated to U.S. Dept. of Justice; the Office of Justice Programs and the Bureau of Justice Statistics drop out of the Publisher slot. Do not rebuild that publisher as United States, Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Student Path or Specialist Path?

The assignment, not the PDF, chooses the path. A short MLA paper that cites one reprint of the Occupational Outlook Handbook should look like §5.20. A senior thesis that cites House Report 615, a Statutes-at-Large slip law, and a Senate staff trip report should look like §§5.21–5.22. Do not mix the two treatments for the same government in one list unless you are consolidating under §5.22 on purpose.

How to Write the Government Author

Read the title page or the PDF cover first. On the §5.20 path, stop there and copy the name. On the §5.21 path, build one Author string from largest to smallest. Spell out United States even if the cover says U.S. Separate the units with commas, then end the Author slot with a period before the title.

• Country or state first, when you standardize. United States, California, New York State, United Kingdom, United Nations.
• Then the parent body. Congress, Department of Education, General Assembly, Legislature.
• Then the working unit. House, Senate, a named committee, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a city planning department.
• Do not skip to the nickname on the specialist path. CDC can appear in your sentence. The Works Cited line still needs the recoverable hierarchy your source supports.
• Do not rebuild the publisher the same way. If the title page says Government Publishing Office, Skyhorse Publishing, or Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, copy that string. §5.63 lets you drop extra subagencies from a long publisher name.

If a person is named as the author of a staff paper or a signed dissent, that person can occupy the Author slot and the government body becomes a contributor or container. Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissenting opinion in Lilly Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. is the Style Center's model for that split. The Durose Bureau of Justice Statistics report is the handbook's model for named researchers at an agency. Ordinary unsigned agency reports almost never work that way: the agency is the author unless the cover names people.

Title Styling: Reports, Laws, and Cases

Students lose marks here because government titles do not all get the same typeface. A self-contained report or yearbook is italic, like a book. A law, act, treaty, or executive order is capitalized like a title and left in roman type. A court case is italic. The Style Center's own examples of those three treatments are Marbury v. Madison, Law of the Sea Treaty, Civil Rights Act, and Code of Federal Regulations.

When a legal source sits on a website that has its own title, still style the legal title the way you would in prose. Do not wrap a law title in quotation marks just because it appears on Cornell Law or govinfo.

Congressional Reports

A House or Senate report is a self-contained work. The committee is the author. The title is the report title. The publisher is usually the Government Printing Office or the Government Publishing Office — use the name on the copy you have. Add the Congress, session, and report number only if they help a reader recover the file.

The same report on congress.gov or govinfo.gov needs a second container: the site name and the URL of the file you opened. Do not paste a search-result URL that expires. Do not change Government Printing Office to Government Publishing Office unless that later name is what your copy prints. The Style Center's own online congressional example is not another invented report; it is Public Law 111-122 as posted by GPO, in the next section.

Public Laws and the United States Code

Cite the version in front of you. A slip law in the United States Statutes at Large is not the same source as a current section of the United States Code on uscode.house.gov, and neither is the same as a Cornell Law reprint. The Style Center's online congressional example is Public Law 111-122 as printed in volume 123 of the Statutes at Large and posted by the Government Publishing Office.

A bill that has not become law still starts with the chamber that introduced it. The Style Center's House example is the Improving Broadband Access for Veterans Act of 2016 on Congress.gov, with the Congress, session, resolution number, and passage date in the optional slot. Handbook §5.21 prints the same bill without that optional slot; §5.118 prints it with the slot. Both are official. Use the facts that identify the copy you opened.

The United States Code is the same problem at larger scale. The Style Center prints three recoverable versions of title 17. Use the one you opened.

If you cite the code as a whole, name title 17 and section 304 in your prose so a reader can find the provision. If you omit those numbers in the sentence, put them in the Works Cited line, as the second official example does. Do not write 17 U.S.C. § 304 as the whole citation unless you are using the hybrid method below for a legal audience. The fdsys GPO URLs are what the Style Center still prints; govinfo.gov is the live successor if that is the file you actually downloaded.

Hearings

A published hearing is a government document, not a journal article and not an interview. The committee is the author. The hearing title is the title of the source. If you used a GPO transcription, say so in the optional-element slot so a reader does not look for video.

Agency Reports and Government Web Pages

An executive-agency yearbook, statistical report, or program page uses the same template, but the Author slot is often shorter and the publisher is often the agency itself. If the agency is only the publisher, start with the title, as the Style Center does with Australia's Welfare, 2017. If named researchers sit on the cover, they are the authors and the agency is the publisher, as in the Durose line above. If you are citing one article that an agency later posted on the web, cite that web version — not the print report you never opened.

The West Nile entry and that instruction are from How do I cite an online article republished from a printed government report?. The article first appeared in the print Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The Works Cited line documents MMWR Weekly on the CDC site because that is the copy the editors opened. The table line is from How do I cite a data table?: it is a real NCES Digest of Education Statistics table, not a made-up 2026 dashboard. A generic CDC vaccination page with an invented current-year date is not a substitute.

Executive Orders

After a president signs an order, the Office of the Federal Register numbers it, prints it in the Federal Register, and later compiles it in the Code of Federal Regulations. MLA still wants the version you read. The Style Center's example is Executive Order 13717, signed by Barack Obama on 2 February 2016 and printed in the Federal Register on 5 February 2016.

Put the president's name in square brackets after the Executive Office, not in the Author slot by itself, unless you are citing a signed message that the source presents as that person's work. Do not turn a White House press-release URL into the whole citation if you actually used the Federal Register PDF.

Constitutions

A constitution is a political document in roman type. If you read a named edition, treat that edition like a book. If you read a transcription on a government site, cite that page. The Style Center's United States examples are the National Archives transcription and Edward Conrad Smith's 1972 Barnes and Noble edition. The same page also prints a Swiss Confederation example for a foreign constitution whose title does not name the country in English.

In prose, write "the Constitution" in roman type. The parenthetical citation still has to key the reader to the Works Cited line you actually used. If the title does not name the country, put the country in the Author slot, as the Style Center does with France and the Swiss Confederation.

State and Local Documents

State and city publications follow the same largest-to-smallest author rule when you are on the specialist path. A compiled state code can be one Works Cited line, with chapter and section numbers in your prose, or you can cite the web page for one section. The Style Center's New York examples are both real Consolidated Laws pages on the New York State Senate site. The same legal-works page, reopened on 18 September 2026, now prints a Tennessee house bill with an access date of 6 May 2026.

The first sentence and the two New York lines are from How do I cite a state law?. The Wisconsin bill and the Tennessee bill are the Style Center's official chamber-bill examples on the legal-works page. The Tennessee line is the editors' current access-date model, not a student guess. Use them instead of an invented city waterfront plan or a dated-2025 state health table. If you do have a local plan, name the city, the department, the real title, the real date on the PDF, and the stable URL.

Treaties and United Nations Documents

An international governing body is still a government author. List the organization, then the organ that issued the text. The Style Center's standard United Nations example is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly Resolution 217 A.

A treaty can begin with the treaty title when no single national government is the author. A bilateral treaty the Senate printed can start with United States, Senate. Cite the file you downloaded, including the "PDF download" label when that is how the site delivered it. The Kyoto URL is printed on the Style Center page as nfccc.int; copy the official example if you are matching that page, and use the file you actually opened if you downloaded the protocol yourself.

Court Cases Belong on a Different Page

A Supreme Court opinion is a legal work, not a committee report. MLA still uses the format template and still cites the version you read. The Style Center prints two recoverable Brown v. Board of Education lines — Cornell Law and the Library of Congress United States Reports PDF — plus a signed Ginsburg dissent. Handbook §6.6 adds Jam v. International Finance Corp. The full case, statute, and Bluebook workflow lives in How to Cite Legal Cases and Court Documents and the Law Citation Guide.

Italicize the case name in prose and in the Works Cited line. Use v., not versus. The old hybrid form that begins Brown v. Board of Education. 347 U.S. 483. is allowed only when you are writing for readers who already know legal citation. In an ordinary MLA paper, prefer the government-author form above. The two Brown lines are the Style Center's proof that the version you opened is the source.

The Hybrid Bluebook Method

Most student papers should stay on the MLA format template. The Style Center offers a second path only when the reader already speaks legal citation.

If you use the hybrid method, the Style Center says not to alphabetize a numbered entry as if the number were spelled out. List numbered works before the first lettered entry, in numerical order. Do not mix hybrid lines with government-author lines for the same kind of source in one paper unless your instructor asked for that mix.

In-Text Citations for Government Authors

The parenthetical citation must point at the first element of the Works Cited line. If the line begins with United States, Congress, House, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the parenthesis repeats enough of that hierarchy to find the entry. You may abbreviate Department as Dept. in the parenthesis, but spell the units out in the list. If the line begins with a title, the parenthesis uses a shortened italic title. Add a page or paragraph number when the copy has one. Handbook §6.6 is the official shortening rule.

Do not write (CDC 2024) in an MLA paper. That is an APA group-author year. MLA has no year in the parenthesis unless you are distinguishing two works that would otherwise look identical. Do not invent a short title that is not in the Works Cited line. The Tibet PDF is a real March 2011 Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff trip report; the handbook's quotation about social unrest in Tibet is taken from that file.

Several Documents from the Same Government

When two Works Cited lines share a leading government name, MLA 9 §5.22 lets you replace each repeated unit with three hyphens — the same repeated-author mark used for people. Keep the first full string. The hyphens stand only for names that are identical, in the same order, to the previous entry. A House committee and a Senate committee share United States, Congress, then diverge.

The first two titles are the official Style Center examples already used above. The third line applies the same hyphen trick to the handbook's Senate Tibet report. Sort the block by the first word that is not a hyphen, so House appears before Senate, and a later United Nations entry starts a new author string.

Access Dates and Unstable .gov Pages

MLA does not require an access date on every URL. For a government file the Style Center's short answer is that it depends on whether the document already carries a publication date. A 2006 GPO report does not need Accessed 18 Sept. 2026. A dashboard that shows "last reviewed" and no stable issue date might. The live legal-works page uses Accessed 6 May 2026 on Tennessee House Bill 2420 because that PDF line has no publication date in the official example.

That sentence is the whole answer on Should I include an access date for a government document published online?. If your instructor still wants access dates on every web source, add them. Do not use an access date to hide a missing author or a missing title.

Failure Modes Students Actually Hit

• Forcing the specialist hierarchy onto one reprint. Handbook §5.20 lets a student paper begin U.S. Department of Labor when that is how the Skyhorse Occupational Outlook Handbook presents the author.
• Starting every entry with the title. That is correct only when the agency is the publisher and not the author, as in Australia's Welfare, 2017. A House report starts with United States, Congress.
• Stopping at CDC or EPA on the specialist path. The nickname can appear in the sentence. The Works Cited line needs the recoverable government hierarchy.
• Rebuilding the publisher as another hierarchy. Copy Government Printing Office, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Skyhorse Publishing, or U.S. Dept. of Justice as printed. §5.63 lets you drop extra subagencies.
• Using Bluebook in an MLA paper without saying so. The hybrid line that begins 17 U.S.C. § 304. is for a legal audience. Ordinary papers stay on the format template.
• Citing United States Reports when you read Cornell Law. The version you opened is the source. The Style Center prints two different Brown entries for that reason.
• Treating uscode.house.gov, LII, and a GPO title page as interchangeable. They are three official examples because they are three sources.
• Inventing a current-year congressional report. House Report 615 is 2006. Public Law 111-122 is 2009. Executive Order 13717 is 2016. The Tibet staff report is 2011. If you cannot name a real report, use a labelled template.
• Pasting a database session link. Prefer congress.gov, govinfo.gov, uscode.house.gov, or the agency PDF. Drop https:// only when you are matching a Style Center or handbook example that printed the URL that way.
• Writing (Agency, Year) as if the paper were APA. MLA parentheticals do not carry a year unless two entries would collide. The official short forms are (United States, Supreme Court) and (United States, Senate 2).
• Treating a court opinion as a government report. Use the case guide. This page keeps Brown, Jam, and the Ginsburg dissent only to show the version rule.

MLA, APA, or Chicago for the Same File?

The PDF does not choose the style. The assignment does. MLA is the works-cited template on this page. APA 7 treats most agency publications as reports with a year after the most specific group author. Chicago 18 splits notes-bibliography from author-date and often hands statutes and opinions to the Bluebook.

A literature or history seminar that says "MLA" wants this page. A psychology methods section that says "APA" wants the report guide. A history seminar that says "Chicago notes" wants the Chicago guide. Do not mix a parenthetical year with a Works Cited line in one paper.

Related guides

• How to cite a government report in APA
• How to cite government documents in Chicago
• How to cite a website in MLA
• How to cite legal cases and court documents
• Law citation guide
• How to cite a government document (source page)
• MLA style overview
• Works Cited, defined
• In-text citations, defined
• Corporate author, defined