Finding Congressional Documents Online
Notes from the Workshop held on 1/17/2004
This workshop covers Congressional publications that are directly related to
federal legislation.
...and focuses on what is available online.
Document symbols:
Bills (introduced by members of Congress (House or Senate)
Some online sources for legislative documents:
Some Helpful Online Resources for Background Information:
The following are linked under “The Congress" on Fred Muratori´s U.S. Government Documents website (subject guide web page):
Fred´s page also includes charts showing the extent of full-text coverage by the various online resources. U.S. Government Documents Website: The Congress .
A few highlights of several online databases:
The publicly available Thomas website has several useful features.
Nice for information about Congress, in general. For example,
Congressional
Universe
Restricted to Cornell (subscription database)
A few highlights:
See example of a bill tracking report for the “Healthy Forests Restoration Act" below.
Bills -- legislative chronology
The legislative chronology includes links to relevant Congressional Record excerpts. Congressional Record is where you find the debates on a particular issue. Great way to find remarks by particular legislators.
Testimony --example "healthy forests restoration". Very helpful for determining who the major players (people, industries, PACS etc, for and against) are/were.
See also: Hot Bills and Topics section:
"CIS' editors have selected bills that have received national attention. These bills are under consideration or have been recently enacted by Congress. For each hot bill, you can retrieve bill tracking reports, bill text and discussions from the Congressional Record. Hot Bills are updated monthly by CIS' editors.
CIS editors' have also selected topics on major issues of the day. For each hot topic, there are articles from major national and regional news sources. Hot Topics are updated monthly by CIS' editors." (Congressional Universe, About Hot Bills and Topics).
Reports -- H.Rpt ; S.Rpt:
Rules committee stuff can sometimes clog results. Look for the phrase "to accompany...." to find more substantive materials.
Public Laws or Statues -- P.L. ___ , __Stat.__
Statutes at Large -- the bound, sessional version of laws. Use Popular Names to identify.
Path: Laws/Statutes at Large/Popular Names (link to right of search window).
Example: From Congressional Universe, choose Statutes at Large. Click on the Popular Names link to the right of the search window and enter "Morrill Act " (the Land Grant act).
Note: Early laws only use the Statute numbering -- 12 Stat. 503 identifies:
COLLEGES FOR AGRICULTURE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS
MORRILL ACTS (AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGES)
FIRST MORRILL ACT AKA MORRILL ACTS (AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGES ACTS)
AN ACT
Donating public lands to the several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.
Legislative Histories:
Legislative histories help you identify the relevant reports, Congressional Record debates, hearings, etc. Try "Musuem of Library Services Act" in Legislative Histories for an example of the kind of information you will find.
National Journal Group's Policy Central
