"The objective of a piece of legislation introduced in Congress is to get passed or, at the very least, to move an issue further in the public policy debate." ~ Paul Jenks
How our Laws are Made by the House is readily available. This is a detailed guide to the legislative process with many definitions and explanations. It is not easy reading. House bills are HR1- and Senate bills are S1-. Many bills begin as similar proposals in both houses. Each bill must have a member to sponsor it. You should be familiar with it.William Burnham's Introduction
of the Law and Legal system of the United States [3d ed.]
is a standard as is Alan Morrison's Fundamentals
of American Law. For a historical overview, consult
Lawrence Friedman's A History of
American Law and American
Law in the 20th Century.
The CQ Almanac is, as CQ claims, a
comprehensive analysis of Congressional action in the year named.
Objective and comprehensive. Should be on your ready reference shelf.
Congress and law-making: researching the legislative
process [Ref KF 240 .G63 1989]. Dated, but still covers the
process well.
Congressional Quarterly's Guide to Congress [Ref JK 1021 .C565].
Congressional Publication: a research guide to legislation, budgets, and treaties [JK1067.Z85 1983]. Dated, but may still be useful.
Greenberg, House and Senate Explained: the Peoples Guide to Congress [JK 1067 .G74 1996].
Gretchen Feltes provides a clear, helpful guide to the U.S. Federal legal system using web-based publicly accessible sources. Diana Botluk's Strategies for Online Legal Research is also most useful.
GPO Access and Thomas are the two essential database providers for free information about the federal legislature. Access provides access to:
In the beginning, GPO Access was charged to provide online access to the Congressional Record and the Federal Register. Spend enough time to be thoroughly familiar with this essential site. Note also the Congressional Documents Browse site beginning with the 104th Congress.
Thomas was launched by the Library of Congress at the request of Congress, building on mainframe legislative database sued by both Chambers and the Congressional Research Service. CRS summaries and status reports are integrated with full-text files from GPO. Thomas does a good job of integrating content from a variety of sources. Since GPO produces the official documents, it may be just a bit more current than Thomas. Reading the search help and sample searches is essential for both. Use other fields to decrease your dependence on specific search terms. Thomas provides large bills and reports in smaller pieces while Access serves the entire item. Be familiar with both Access and Thomas. Access is best for document retrieval. Thomas is best for research.
Congress for Kids is interesting and also provides a good overview for many adults.
The Congressional Directory is the official Congressional Directory prepared by the Joint Committee on Printing. 1888 -. Short bios of each member of the House and Senate plus some additional data. Also lists other federal officials.
The House website provides much useful information.
House Rules and Manual [he parliamentary procedures used in the House]
The Law Library of the Library of Congress provides useful information and guides.
The Senate website provides much useful background information.The Thomas Legislative Information Site by the Library of Congress is comprehensive, reliable, and free. Its principle weakness is a lack of retrospective coverage, but most library users are focused on current or recent legislation.
Congress.org
provides information on Representatives and Senators.
CongressMerge
has a useful bill status service.
FedNet
provides broadcast coverage of the Congress when in session.
Findlaw is an usually useful site for law matters.
GovTrack.us"is a crossroads
for data on the status of legislation, the activities
of representatives, campaign contributions, and other statistics and
public commentary." Email updates are available. Access to bills since
1999. Note most recent vote and hot legislation features.
The
Guide to Law Online by the U.S. Law Library of Congress. A
metasite for legal information world-wide. Thorough and comprehensive.
Finding Congressional Documents From the Past is also useful.
The
Law Librarian's Society's Legislative Source Book is
especially. Note too the several other useful links on the home page,
including a detailed article on federal legislative history research.
LexNotes is a comprehensive and well organized directory of topical links.
The Public
Interest Research Group looks at voting from a somewhat
liberal perspective.
Roll Call
is the excellent, objective Congressional newspaper. Useful for current
awareness.
Virtual Chase: Legal Research on the Internet is an excellent gateway to legal research. Several substantial on-line teaching tools.
YourCongress.com has a motto "It's your Congress, learn to laugh." There are a variety of interesting features.
A variety of blogs deal with federal government. One well regarded aggregator is PubSub Government which provides a SDI service and an innovative approach is found in Plogress.com which aggregates content from Thomas to allow focused search
Congress came first, before the presidency and the judicial branch as seen in Article 1, section 1 in the Constitution. Congress was born with the Articles of Confederation. More specifically, the House and Senate resulted from the Constitutional Convention of 1787. An annotated and authoritative version of the Constitution, including Supreme judgments related to the Constitution is available online.
There is a new Congress every 2 years with the election of a new House. The Senate is a continuing body so there is never a new Senate.
Beginning with the first Congress in 1789, sessions are numbered consecutively with one regular session each year beginning in January.
Congress has expressed powers from the Constitution to tax, borrow, and declare war. Congress also has implied powers to make laws that are necessary and proper. Congress has inherent powers derived from being the legislature of a sovereign nation.
Committees do most of the work, usually in standing or
permanent committees. There are usually about two dozen of these with a
few less in the Senate. There are also subcommittees, special and
select committees, joint committees involving both chambers, and
commissions and boards. Each party has committees to nominate members
to particular committees. There is considerable competition for
important committee appointments.
The Congressional Biographical Directory contains current information about congressional representatives and is searchable by name, position, or state.
The Washington Information Directory is an annual publication arranged by subject, and with broad coverage.
The United States Government Organization Manual
is the official handbook and includes all three branches of government.
This should be on your desk and the web version visibly bookmarked.
The Congressional Directory is published for the first session of each Congress. It also covers the other two branches. The Congressional Pictorial Directory is available via GPO Access. C-SPAN also provides a Congressional directory with much useful information.
The excellent CQ Congressional Staff Directory (REF JK 1012 .C65) also includes the executive branch and independent agencies:
The Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the U.S.
Congress includes information and photographs of about 700
key Congressional staffers. Information includes their professional
background, areas of expertise, specific legislative contributions, and
their political orientation. These are the people who do the work.
These agencies were created to handle congressional business and to counter the considerable research strength of the Executive Branch.
This is the the person and the office responsible for the
structural and mechanical care of the Capitol, the legislative office
buildings, the LC buildings, the Supreme Court building, the
surrounding grounds, and works of art in these buildings. Here is an
interesting history
of the Capitol. The Capitol
Project is a metasite with a variety of sites related to
history, government, and culture. A virtual tour of the Capitol is
included.
The GAO website.
This agency is also non-partisan and is a "watchdog" or investigative
agency led by the Comptroller General of the U.S. who is appointed by
the President and serves a 15 year term. The GAO provides Congress with
current, accurate, and complete financial management data by conducting
audits, surveys, investigations, and evaluations of federal programs,
with some emphasis on the receipt and disbursement of public funds.
Many current reports are available via their website and some have been
cataloged by OCLC and are found in WorldCat. The Government Accounting Office Reports
are often mentioned in the news so you may get requests for them.
The CRS provides high quality special library type reference service to meet the needs of Congress. Searches are exhaustive and objective, usually on topical policy issues. Unlike "normal" reference, the responses include analysis (objective) and thoughtful summaries. Results of the reference work appear as reports and issue briefs. A few members of Congress have been unhappy when the analysis does not support their views. There are about 800 employees including one SIS graduate. CRS is organized around subject areas:
CRS reports, about 3,000 per year, focus on explaining the various aspects of public policy issues with some consideration of the costs and benefits of solutions. These reports have not been publicly available, although a few in Congress would like to make them public [they are public documents]. Legislation to allow public distribution has languished. The IP Mall at Franklin Pierce is a good example of a specialized collection of CRS reports. The University of North Texas Libraries has begun an online archive of these research reports. The archive presently includes about 7,000 reports. An alternative is OpenCRS [Congressional Research for the People. This collection includes almost 10,000 reports.
The Penny Hill Press acquires, duplicates, and distributes CRS reports on a report or subscription basis. They appear to have a reasonably comprehensive collection. They also provide a CRS report abstracting service.
Created to provide Congress with expert advice on technology
policy issues, OTA ceased on September 30, 1995. There has been some
discussion of bringing it back since the current Congress faces several
complex technology issues and expert advice would make a difference.
Legislators introduce legislation or bills of interest to those who live in their district or state or contribute to their campaign. In the 108th Congress ['02 - '04], 8,621 bills were introduced and 498 [about six percent became law]. Only eighteen percent of bills introduced are reported out of committee.
Legislative staff members assist people who live in their district or state to deal with a variety of "snags" related to government rules and regulations as well as influencing legislation. Helping older folks with Social Security or Medicare problems is a classic example.
The title is somewhat misleading since most of what appears below is related to law making. These duties include:
Most legislation introduced in Congress consists of bills.
Bills must be introduced by a Member of Congress. Bills remain pending
until the final adjournment of a Congress when they die. Bills begin
with H.R for the House and S. for the Senate. All revenue raising
legislation must originate in the house. Typically, there are about
25,000 bills and resolutions in two sessions. Appropriation and
authorization bills are most important because they involve federal
government funding. The introduction of a bill, especially if
controversial, generates considerable media attention. Amendments and
the like, even when they have dramatic impact, receive little media
attention.
Thomas indexes bills by subject, sponsor and popular title. It provides a summary, the full text of the bill, and status. The "Hot Legislation" features are often valuable, especially the ability to search by popular or short title and to examine "Hot Legislation" in Congress during the current week. You will also find the full text of the Congressional Record and good search options. Note too the "Current Activity" links. Thomas has recently been revised. Note the "For Teachers" link. It's easier to browse legislation by sponsor. Links to presidential nomination records in Senate hearings. Links to the full text of treaties from treaty records. Easier to search multiple Congresses at the same time.
Resolutions begin with S. Res or H.Res. Resolutions [simple resolutions] are limited to matters concerning one chamber. No presidential signature is required. Joint Resolutions are passed by both chambers and become law as if they were bills. Commemorative days, weeks or months are common examples. Concurrent resolutions (H.Con. Res, S.Con. Res) reflect the sense of both chambers and usually express opinion or principle, but do not become law. This resolution does not require the presidential signature.
More than 10,000 constitutional amendments have been introduced since 1789, but few have become part of the Constitution. These go directly to the House or Senate Judiciary Committee.
Private bills are for the relief of one or several specified persons, corporations, or institutions. There are fewer private laws over time since more discretion has been given to government agencies to deal with these problems. There are three major categories: claims, immigration hardship cases, and honoring an event or a person. The Calendars of the House or Senate have useful tables for private laws. They are also found in the Congressional Record arranged by bill number.
Similar to private bills, but deal with individuals only as a group or class.
These terms should be familiar.
Similar bills are usually introduced in both houses at about
the same time. Anyone may draft a bill and some bills are drafted by
those outside government [lobbyists for example]. However, bills may
only be introduced by a member of Congress. The same bill will have a
different number in the House and Senate. The House must initiate all
revenue bills. Bills are given prefix H or S and then a consecutive
number with 1 for each new Congress. Each Congress lasts for two years.
Each year is called a session. For example,
1996 was the 104th Congress, 2nd session.
Legislative reference is based on the record of events in both
Houses. Article 1, section five of the Constitution requires that "each
House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings and from time to time
publish the same." Since 1789, the Journal
of the United States House of Representatives and the Journal of the United States Senate
provide a record of legislative action. The Journals include
legislative minutes, votes, bill history, and Presidential messages.
Each volume covers one congressional session. The Journal
of Executive Proceedings of the U.S. Senate focuses on
nominations and treaties submitted by the Executive Branch.
Congressional Proceedings are required by the Constitution, but it does not provide detailed guidance. The Record should be a verbatim report of the proceedings. However, Congressional privileges have allowed remarks not delivered on the floor to be inserted and remarks made on the floor to be edited so it is an edited transcript.
Journal of Congress (for the Continental Congress) was issued in a newspaper format. Neither timely nor accurate. The Library of Congress issued Journals of the Continental Congress, 1776-1789 and this is the standard work.There are no official records for the period from 1789 - 1873. The Annals of Congress from 1789 -1824 was the first attempt to include the debates rather than just the action taken. The Annals only deals with major events. It is retrospective and was authorized by Congress. It does contain a primitive and difficult to use index. The Register of Debates covers the period from 1824-1837, but only includes major events. It was printed at the time the events happened. It too includes a primitive and difficult to use index. The Congressional Globe covers the period from 1833 - 1873, but only major events. Another primitive and difficult to use index. This was the final record of Congress issued by a private printer. Private printing was expensive and the product was sometimes inadequate. LexisNexis CIS has a fiche set for Congressional journals from 1789 - 1978 that is reasonably comprehensive, but expensive.
As part of the American
Memory Project at the Library of Congress, Congressional
records from 1774 - 1875 are now available on the web. A marvelous
resource.
The present Congressional Record dates from 1874. It is issued daily when Congress is in session. It is indexed biweekly by subject, personal name, and bill number. The daily digest summarizes the day's legislative actions, including committee hearings. Indexes issued twice each month. The history of bills and resolutions cumulates in each issue of the Record Index during the session. The Congressional Record is issued in four sections:
The Congressional Record is the only source of comprehensive debate coverage. The biweekly indexes in the print edition make searching tedious. Use one of the digital versions.
The Record is
issued daily on newspaper stock one day following the proceedings.
Beginning in 1947, a "Daily Digest"t is included with each issue to
summarize action. There is a hard copy edition that is issued several
years later. The Record
includes floor proceedings, debates and remarks, notice of all bills
introduced, full text of conference committee reports, notices of
committee and Presidential actions, and content submitted by members
for publication. The Congressional
Record Index is issued every two weeks and later cumulates
into a bound volume. Members may add content not delivered on the
floor, normally indicted by a black dot.
Lexis Nexis Congressional the single best source for legislative information via Hodges Library. It provides full-text coverage of most House and Senate reports from 1990 and documents from 1995. Selective coverage of committee prints. Less than half of the hearing transcripts are included. Indexing is excellent and the legislative histories come from the well-regarded LexisNexis CIS Index.
CQ Today [formerly CQ Monitor] provides good news coverage, including planned floor action, descriptions of bills and amendments, notices of markup sessions and conference negotiations. Good analysis and behind-the-scenes information. There is also an afternoon email newsletter.
CQ Weekly
is noted for clear status tables of major legislation, roll-call vote
chars, and topical treatments of committee activity. Good background
information on legislative issues. Quarterly indexes and cumulates into
the CQ Almanac.
Bills and resolutions are issued in paper (pamphlet or slip)
format and then referred to appropriate committees according to
procedural rules. Those not favored by the committee die. Bills not
passed before the second session of Congress must be reintroduced and
given a new number.
Thomas is useful for bill-tracking, but not as useful as LexisNexis Congressional or CQ's Daily Monitor. Thomas provides access to:
There are about twenty full committees in each chamber and
each has its own scope or oversight responsibility. Often legislation
will involve subjects of interest to more than one committee. Full
committees usually refers bills to subcommittees with a more
specialized focus. Subcommittees may request information from
government agencies, hold hearings, make and adopt revisions, and
report the bill to the full chamber.
Bills are placed on a committee calendar. They may then be referred to a subcommittee. If the committee finds that passage is unlikely, the bill simply dies. The House has two calendars, one for public bills and one for private bills. The Senate has one calendar plus an executive calendar for treaties and presidential nominations.
Calendar of the US House of Representatives and History of Legislation [DOC J 47 .A3] is the official source of business reported from committees. It is issued daily when the house is in session. The Monday issue includes a subject index and indexes cumulate. The final issue includes a summary of action, PL numbers, and a list of bills that did not become law. This source is especially useful for information on current legislation.
The Senate of the United States Calendar of Business is not as useful as the House calendars because the indexes do not cumulate.
Committee calendars are difficult to characterize because
content and frequency vary by committee.
Subcommittees hold hearings to gather "public" reaction to the
legislation. Hearings represent testimony on proposed legislation,
nominations, investigations, and appropriations by lobbyists, executive
branch representatives, and experts. GPO Access provides a "browse
hearings" service beginning with the 105th Congress
[1997-98]. When the hearings are complete, the committee decides
whether or not to require further study or hearings or vote on the
recommendations. If a majority of the subcommittee agrees, the
legislation returns to the full committee for consideration. The
meeting in which a bill is debated, amended and sent forward is called
a "markup" (markup means editing) session. Many bills die in
subcommittees and some die in committee. With enough support, the bill
is again "marked up" and sent to the floor, usually with a written
committee report. Consideration may be immediate or the bill may be
placed on the calendar for later consideration. In the House, the Rules
Committee creates a resolution indicating how the bill will be
considered on the floor, the debate time, and how many and what type of
amendments will be allowed. In the Senate, unanimous consent is usually
required for legislation to reach the floor.If the bill is still alive,
the full committee votes on its recommendation to the house. This step
is called ordering a bill reported. After the
vote, staff prepare a written report on the bill with focus on the
intent and scope of the legislation, impact on existing laws and
programs, position of the executive branch and minority views.
Most of the discussion and debate involving legislation takes place in committee so committee information is essential in establishing the legislative history. Most committee information is published, but there may be a time lag and much information is difficult to obtain without fee. For example, the GPO Sales Office only receives 15 copies of a typical hearing.
GPO Access provides access to hearings from 1997. The LexisNexis
CIS Annual [in
LexisNexis Congressional] indexes hearings by subject,
title, and bill number. If you have the PL number, go directly to the
legislative history section at the end of the abstracts volume or to
the legislative history volume. Always check the abstracts volume and
read the abstracts. More Senate committees are placing hearings on
their Committee websites with Agriculture, Banking, Commerce, Energy,
Environment, and Rules leading the way. For current hearings,
contacting the appropriate committee as soon as possible is the best
strategy. Recent unpublished testimony before a committee is difficult
to obtain. Sometimes this is available on a committee web site. If you
know the identity of the witnesses, you can contact them and see if
they will give you copies of their prepared statements. In some cases,
these statements will be available on corporate web sites. Nineteenth
Century hearings were published as documents and many are in the Serial
Set. The CIS Historical Set
is the most complete source for those. Two commercial providers, the
Federal News Service and the Federal Document Clearing House, capture
testimony before Congressional committees and make it available via LexisNexis, LexisNexis
Congressional, Westlaw,
and others.
CQ Weekly indicates the status of major
legislation in a table at the end of each issue. Excellent current
awareness reading. Should be near your desk. CQ Today is a daily
news alert subscription service. Excellent daily briefing.
The Congressional Record provides an index to bills by subject every other Friday. The "Congressional Record Daily Digest" is a supplement to the Record with information on bills introduced, reported, and passed the preceding day. However, it is difficult to find voting records. Sometimes, committees decide on bills by voice vote so there are no voting particulars.
Jack McGeachy at North Carolina State University issues the U.S. Congressional Bibliographies which enumerates and describes Congressional committee meetings since 1985.
The bill comes to the floor of the chamber and is debated. Votes are taken.
The Congressional Record, the House Journal, and the Senate Journal record this stage. The Washington Post's U.S. Congress Votes Database is clear and easily used.
The debate text is found in the CR with one section for the House and one for the Senate. The bound set is edited and issued much later so that it differs from the daily edition. Note that member's remarks may have been edited in some way, especially in the past. Since 1993, debates can be found in Thomas. LexisNexis Congressional indexes and provides the full text of the CR since 1985.
If the bill passes in one chamber, it must go to the other
where it will follow a similar process. Legislation may be consider in
both chambers at the same time.
If the bill is passed in both houses, but there is some
notable difference in content, a conference committee
is formed to reconcile differences. Some times, the final legislation
is quite different from what was in either of the passed bills.
During the legislative process, members of Congress and Senators may insert, strike and insert, strike out, and substitute content of the bill. Amendments are:
The CQ Weekly Report and the appropriate cumulation is the best source. Tables allow easy comparison of voting records. . CQ's Congressional Roll Call [year] is an authoritative source for congressional voting data. The Directory of Congressional Voting Scores and Interest Group Ratings is also useful.
These are sometimes called the third house of Congress. Before the President can sign the bill, both chambers must have approved IDENTICAL versions. Conference committees settle differences. The product is the "Conference Report" which is printed in both chambers. This Report is:
The bill becomes law if not vetoed within ten days (excludes Sunday). If Congress adjourns before the ten days are up, the bill does not become law.
The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and the White House web site provide access to presidential messages about bills, vetoes, and public laws. The Compilation has quarterly, semi annual, and annual indexes. The transcripts of presidential messages to Congress are helpful for legislative histories.
CQ's Landmark Legislation 1774 - 2003 provides a solid summary of the most important laws passed by Congress.
Veto messages are House or Senate documents depending on the bill's origin [Y 1.1/7 or Y 1.1/3]. Veto messages are indexed in:
Congressional votes on vetoed legislation are reported in:
If both chambers have a 2/3 majority in favor of the bill, the veto is overridden. If Congress is not in session, the President can "pocket veto" a bill by not signing it.
The Congressional Record daily digest
volume gives a history of bills enacted into Public Laws in table form.
The index volume contains a section on the history of bills and
resolutions arranged by bill number. The same information is available
on Lexis in the GENFED library from 99th Congress forward. LexisNexis Congressional
is probably the best, and quickest search engine for the Congressional Record but GPO Access
works well.
Presidential remarks on new public laws appear in the Weekly
Compilation of Presidential Documents.
When passed by both Houses and signed by the President, the
new public law goes to the Office of the Federal Register for
publication. Each slip law (pamphlet form) is assigned a public law
number based on the Congress in session and then the number of the law
(simply how many other laws passed before this one).Public and private
laws renumber with each Congress, PL 103-1. There is some time lag in
issuing slip laws. Slip laws contain marginal notes and some
legislative history with citations to noted documents.
Commercial firms publish laws long before the slip laws reach
libraries. For example, the U.S. Law Week [BNA]
publishes texts of selected laws each week. Lexis provides on-line
access. With digital access, there is little need to wait for slip laws.
Slip laws are next placed in the U.S. Statutes at Large with the first volume covering 1789-1799 [privately printed for several years]. Slip laws are arranged chronologically into bound sessional volumes in the order of their enactment, but there is a notable time lag. These volumes contain the full text of all public and private laws. There is a subject index. Statutes at Large include:
The West United States Code Congressional and Administrative News is much more current and also contains solid legislative history. In order to find a public law in SAL, you must know the legislative session.
There are several sources for U.S. statutes and public laws of recent years:A law or Act may be broken into parts and the parts
distributed by topic throughout the U.S. Code. Be certain to examine
the law as a whole before going to the Code
since parts of the law may end up in different places. U.S. laws were
first codified in 1873 and the first edition of the U.S. Code appeared
between 1925 and 1927. . The Code includes "the general and permanent
laws authored by Congress" so that inclusions change from time to time.
Typically, a new edition of the U.S. Code is issued every six years.
Later, statutes in effect (general and permanent laws) are consolidated and codified in subject order into the United States Code (USC) under 50 broad subject areas called titles. Be careful, these are NOT the same as the titles included within a bill, law or act. The Code is arranged by titles, subtitles, chapters, sub chapters, parts and sections. Citations are generally to sections as in "the Voting Rights Act, Pub.L. No. 89-110, 79 Stat.445 with a (note) following.
New laws are inserted into appropriate relevant titles or
perhaps by creating a new section. Executive orders are placed in the
notes area of related sections. Table IV of the U.S. Code lists each
executive order and its location.
West's United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A) is the standard. It includes good historical notes, is easy to use, and has very good indexing besides being considerably more current. U.S.C.A, also has more background information on case law, judicial challenges, references to related legislation, legislative history, and regulatory information. The "Popular Names Index" is especially useful since legislation may be known by the popular name. For many, this would be the first step in learning about a statute. A citation would be:
All three sources have good popular name titles. GPO Access and Cornell's Legal Information Institute provide a searchable U.S. Code (U.S.C.) on the web.
In order for a law to be properly implemented, rules or regulations must be created. Rule-making authority is given to an appropriate federal agency to implement the law. Regulations are published in the Federal Register and eventually codified in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Law review articles on a law often provide historical background, an analysis of legislative intent, and the current state of the law. Articles are well documented and helpful in developing a legislative history for a major or especially interesting law.
Approach law reviews via the Index to Legal Periodicals:
The Current Law Index is an alternative and is more comprehensive.
The digital version is called Legal Trac. It covers more than 800 legal periodicals and newspapers. Subject or key word searches. Updated monthly. Available on web (subscription).
The Current Index to Legal Periodicals:
Note the University
Law Review project for law reviews on the web.
The Library
of Congress Law Library also has a site devoted to law
reviews on the web.
LexisNexis CIS provides the best intellectual access to legislative information and their fiche and CD-ROM collections provide collections of legislative documents and publications.
The CIS Index [KF 49 .C62] [inLN Congressional] is their most important legislative product. It is a monthly index and abstracting service with annual and five year cumulations. Issued in 2 parts from 1970 - 1983: Abstracts of congressional publications and legislative histories, and excellent index to congressional publications and public laws. Since 1984, the annual cumulation is issued in 3 parts: Abstract, Index, and legislative histories. The annual is a cumulation of the monthly publication.
LexisNexis Congressional, formerly Congressional Universe, formerly Congressional Compass, integrates a variety of CIS legislative information sources into one web-based package. It includes substantial indexing, substantial abstracts and full text for most recent congressional publications. Legislative histories are available sooner than in the annual. National Journal is included in this package, but graphics are not present.The owners of the St. Petersbury Times founded Congressional Quarterly in 1945 to provide objective, timely information about Congress for newspapers that could not afford a large Washington bureau. Today, CQ employs about 100 reporters, researchers, and editors covering Capitol Hill.
CQ publishes periodicals, books, and provides subscription
based web services. The CQ Weekly Report is
probably their most famous product. Other periodicals include CQ
monitor, House Action Reports, Campaigns and Elections, Campaign
Insider and the CQ Researcher . One of their newest products
is CQ NewsAlert,
a web-based subscription service of breaking congressional news. The
Washington Alert tracking service covers legislative and regulatory
information. CQ Books issues more than 50 titles annually. Recent
titles include: How Congress Works, Landmark Documents on the
U.S. Congress and Who's Who in Congress. CQ Staff Directories
issue Congressional Staff Directory and Federal
Staff Directory among others. CQ offers training and speakers
as well as a custom research service. CQ Executive Reports are topical,
likely to interest business professionals and combine analysis with
documentation.
This is a cumulative summary of the content found in the CQ Almanac. It is issued every presidential term. "Encyclopedic" is a fair characterization. This work is especially good for tracing major older legislation.
The CQ digital library includes the CQ
Researcher, CQ Public
Affairs Collection,
CQ Congress Collection, CQ Voting and Elections Collection, CQ Public
Affairs Collection, CQ Encyclopedia of American Government, CQ Bill
Briefs, the CQ
Supreme Court Collection, and the CQ
Insider. The CQ
Budget Tracker follows the budget and appropriations
process, including source documents, news coverage, and analysis. CQ Homeland Security is another topical service. Of
most interest here is the CQ Congress Collection
which features much useful, easy to use content on legislation, members
of Congress, key votes, and the legislative branch. The included
Congressional Encyclopedia explains more than 250 topics. The
Congressional Dictionary defines more than 900 terms. CQ also has a
digital Voting and Elections Collection
with easily used data on Presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial
elections as well as campaigns, political parties, and voters -
demographics. Reviews of both have been most positive.
WESTLAW has increased their coverage of legislative and political affairs. The Billcast database summarizes public bills introduced in the current session of Congress. Appropriations and budget committee legislation is not included. Billcast Archives includes public bills from 1985. WESTLAW provides access to several CQ and CIS databases such as CQ's Congressional Bill Tracking and their Text of Congressional Bills The CIS Index to Publications of the United States Congress provides access to reports, hearings, and special reports from 1970. Congressional Record is also available. Databases for the annotated U.S. Code are included to include current and retrospective documents, a general index, and the popular name table. Similar information is available for United States Statutes at Large.
LexisNexis Academic is the product most likely to be encountered in academic libraries. It contains good coverage of case and statutory law. The "Get a Case" feature is easily used and searches several federal databases at the same time. You can also access the U.S. Code and the CFR. More than 300 law reviews are also included in Academic.
Besides Congressional, the traditional LexisNexis databases have considerable strength for legislative searching. Legislative materials are found in LEXIS, primarily in the GENFED (Federal Federal Library), CODES (Statutes Library), and LEGIS (the Legislation Library). The file "Bills" includes the Bl text file which covers current session legislation. The Billtrk file summarizes and displays the status of legislation in the current session. LEXIS covers committee reports in the Cmtrpt file from 1990. Access to the Congressional Record begins in 1985. The well-regarded U.S. Code Service version of the U.S. Code is available in the US code files. Public laws are in the Publaw file.
The Journal is certainly expensive at
about $1000.00 per year, but this weekly periodical provides more depth
than the Weekly Report, but at the cost of being
less comprehensive. Covers major legislation and activity at a variety
of federal government agencies. It is available on Lexis. There are
good indexes by name, agency, organization, geographic region, subject,
congressional committee, and author. A free daily newsletter is
available and is very good.
Roll Call is issued twice each week and
contains considerable inside information about what is happening in
Congress.
Begun in 1921, Congressional Digest
provides objective analysis via the pros and cons of a single political
topic such as school prayer, welfare reform, immigration policy) in
each monthly issue. These issues are especially useful for beginning
debaters and high school and undergraduate students writing issue
papers. It is indexed in PAIS.
The most famous of all legislative information web sites is THOMAS which is provided by the Library of Congress. Not strong for retrospective searching, but most helpful for reasonably current legislation. Contains the full text of legislation from the 103 Congress forward. Includes text of all bill versions as well as bill summary and status. This is the best most current source for the full text of floor debates. Thomas also contains the full text of the Congressional Record. Identifies hot bills in the current congress by subject and keyword. The keyword searching is very good. Thomas also includes a keyword searchable version of the Constitution and How our Laws are made.
Helpful for recent legislative sessions. May be the best public source for the complete text of bills. The database includes congressional bills, documents, and reports as well as the Congressional Record and Congressional Record Index.. Besides a history of bills, you will find both the House and Senate Calendar, and a list of public laws.
The Senate web site and the House web site. Here you will find the full text and status of bills and resolutions. Probably the best public source of information on bill status. You will also find:
The House website is the best public site for legislative status with access by keyword, bill number, sponsor, date introduced, legislative action, and committee. GPO Access is probably the best public source for down loading the complete text of bills. Use the searching guides since searches are not intuitive. Thomas is an excellent public source.
Documentation includes reports, documents, prints, and hearings. Hearings are testimony before Congressional committees on issues related to the proposed legislation. The Congressional Masterfile CD-ROMs by CIS are the best source for older published hearings. Congressional Masterful 1 covers:
Congressional Masterfile II continues the above from 1970 to date.
The full text of many unpublished hearings can be found via LEXIS. Agency testimony before a committee may be available via their website, but not always easy to find.
Finding committee reports can be difficult, especially those
with popular names. The CIS Index to Publications
of the United States Congress does much better and LexisNexis Congressional is also
useful.
Documents are communications from the Executive Branch to Congress about the proposed legislation. Recent reports and documents may be available via GPO Access.
LEXIS includes committee votes in the LEGIS Library/COMMV
file. Some markup text will appear in printed hearings of some
committees. LexisNexis Congressional is also useful.
Floor debates appear in the Congressional Record. LexisNexis Congressional provides sophisticated, quick searching of the CR and is the best approach for those who can afford it.
The CQ Weekly Report and CQ Almanac record floor votes.
THOMAS indexes the Congressional Record via keyword and bill number. Floor votes appear in text in every issue.
LexisNexis Congressional provides access to Presidential statements, including vetoes. The Presidential web pages may contain recent veto messages.
Thomas is the best source for information about recent legislation. The CQ family of reference sources will answer many reference queries about legislation, whether it be current or retrospective. Some recent studies have found that LEXIS is the best information source to answers questions such as those above. LexisNexis Congressional .
Use one of the CQ resources to identify a promising topic. Congressional Digest with its topical pro and con format is another possibility, especially for undergraduate students. CQ Researcher also provides a focused look at one problem area and includes a substantial bibliography (not just government information).
Use Thomas to find the text of the bill, its state, and citations to the Congressional Record.
Read the Congressional Record in the format which is easiest for you.
Use LexisNexis Congressional to find hearings and reports.
Use the Almanac of American Politics to gather background information on legislators associated with the legislation.
Begin in the US Code Annotated index which will lead you to proper title and subject numbers. Remember to check the pocket part for recent information. If that does not work, try to locate information in a legal encyclopedia such as Corpus Juris Secundum [KF 75.C67] or American Jurisprudence [KF 75 .A47].
Begin with Shepard's Acts and Cases by Popular Name
[KF 80 .S5]. It is dated, but the cumulative supplements are helpful
for retrospective searches. The links to the US Code
or Statutes at Large are helpful. For recent
legislation, GPO Access can be helpful.
You will also wish to use the "Popular Names Table" in the index volume of USCA. CQ Weekly is useful for recent laws.
This may also be called the Congressional Set, the Sheep Set (because of its binding), or the Serial Number Set. There are now more than 14,000 physical volumes. Before 1979, only 22 complete, official copies of the Set were published and distributed. Beginning in 1997, only regional depository libraries receive the set in paper. The Serial Set contains the numbered reports and documents of Congress from 1817 to the present. There were many printing problems between 1789 and 1817 and quality control was poor. In 1860, the Government Printing Office was established.Beginning with the 96th Congress, Senate Executive Documents and Executive Reports were also included. However, the first 14 Congresses (1789 - 1816) are not part of the official serial set, but may be found in the American State Papers (Special Collections) The Set also includes:
For some 19th century congresses, reports from executive branch agencies account for more than 1/2 of the Set. Both the legislative and executive branch documents are useful for historians. Material dealing with the American West and with Native Americans is noteworthy.
The early history of the set is somewhat complicated, but few libraries will hold the earlier volumes. Some early volumes are rare and valuable. Volumes with lavish plates and maps have been the target of theft/mutilation. There are serious preservation problems as pages and binding degrade. Few libraries have preservation plans for these.
Today, the Serial Set typically includes:
Documents include:
To save money, the paper edition is being eliminated so that only fiche and digital editions will be available. The fiche edition does not handle illustrations well.
CIS has published a well regarded {but expensive} index to the serial set, 1789-1969 and this is the best finding aid for older congressional reports and documents. A companion fiche collection which contains all Serial Set content from 1789 - 1969 is also available. The monthly CIS Index to Publications of the United States Congress covers 1970 to present and includes several excellent indexes. CIS has also published an index to U.S. Senate executive documents and reports from 1818 - 1969 and can provide the items indexed on fiche. Since 1969, the CIS Index covers these items. CIS has added an index and carto-bibliography of the 50,000 maps in the serials set. The 1789 - 1897 segment is published and eventually will cover through 1969.
Although the Set accounts for a very large proportion of pre- 1900 depository material, it is little used. Social science accounts for most use and relatively little use is related to history [curious]. Holding the last 10 years would met the needs of most depository libraries.
Although aimed at high school users, Ben's
Guide to U.S. Government for Kids, provides a good summary of
tracking legislative history. In fact, this is an excellent
introduction for any beginner. There are several good legislative
history guides available on the web:
Legislative history is documentation by Congress of the background and events leading to the enactment of a law. It is a chronological record of what happens to a bill during the legislative process. It is also a collection of all the documents created during this process. Finally, legislative history may also include secondary material such as law review articles. Legislative history is essential in determining the INTENT of the legislators in passing the statute. This is particularly important when the legislation itself is somewhat broadly written and will need to be INTERPRETED by executive agencies issuing regulations and federal courts when implementation is challenged. Challenges to Franklin Roosevelt's legislative initiatives forced Federal courts to examine legislative history so that it became more acceptable in court. Historically, detailed legislative histories have been largely limited to firms and agencies in the DC area. The General Accounting Office (GAO) began one of the most extensive legislative history collections in the federal government. Even as late as 1959, the practice of compiling legislative histories was a recent and atypical development.
Increasingly, broad, hastily written legislation may be
understood only in terms of its legislative history. What was the
intent of those who created the legislation? Which committees and
Members were most involved? What were the major pro and con arguments?
Two substantial problems in compiling a legislative history:
Some legislation is relatively easy to locate via bill number. When the bill number is unknown, it may be helpful to search on a key phrase related to the legislation such as "cybersquatting" or the name of a member strongly associated with the legislation.
Retrieving the documents is often the most difficult part. Washington lobbyists, Congressional staff and Members of Congress have excellent access to Congressional documents, but they are often unavailable to information professionals, citizen's groups and citizens.
In 1973, Congress began to use the Bill Status system to monitor legislative progress. LC developed bill digests, abstracts, and indexing for this system. At about the same time, Richard Adler organized the first viable indexing system to cover all of Congress's daily output of hearings, prints, and reports, the Congressional Information Service Index and Abstracts. The CIS Annual Legislative Histories from the 98th Congress (1984-) forward provide access to a reasonable legislative history [now in LexisNexis Congressional]. These are issued monthly with an annual cumulation. The legislative histories are at the end of the Abstracts volume.
The sources cited at the end of each slip law represent a minimal legislative history.
Federal Legislative Research: A Practitioner's Guide is comprehensive and very detailed.
Bills and amendments, especially evidence of deliberate exclusions and inclusions in the bill. Hearings provide evidence on the purpose of the legislation and its likely benefits. Hearings are designed to evaluate and to investigate matters related to appropriations and legislative efficiency. The SuDocs classes for hearings are Y1.1/8 for House and 1/5 for Senate. The hearings demonstrate that certain issues were known to Congress and perhaps give a sense of Congressional reaction to those issues.
Not all bills have hearings and not all hearings are published. CIS remains the best source for retrospective and current information of hearings.
Committee prints are research studies, compilations, legislative histories, background information or working drafts of a bill written for the committee. Prints are not automatically published or distributed. Again, CIS is the best source.
Committee reports are recommendations explaining to Congress the purpose of the legislation and recommendations on the bill. Eventually, these will appear in the Serial Set. CIS provides a fiche collection and intellectual access.
Senate Executive Documents would be an example. These are primarily treaties and other executive agreements. The Congressional Masterfile CD-ROM from CIS provides good access to committee publications. Lexis provides the best access to unpublished committee information in the CNGTST library. At present, there is no House or Senate rule to provide the public with web access to any Congressional document.
Statements by the bill's sponsor or the committee chair in debates often clarify or explain the rationale behind the bill.
The voting record is specially important if passage was a narrow one. CQ Almanac contains roll call votes for previous years. LexisNexis Congressional and Thomas are useful for more current votes.
The administration may sponsor or oppose legislation. Presidential messages may provide useful background information.
A
tutorial on legislative history is now available at Michigan.
I strongly suggest that you complete the tutorial.
Consider what information you have at hand since you will use
these elements to search for more information:
Thomas
provides:
The CQ Weekly Report and its cumulations provide a helpful starting place for the student who needs a topic. Good subject access and background is provided. Previous CQ Almanacs can provide more retrospective information including roll call floor votes. Browsing should produce an interesting topic, bill numbers, members associated with the legislation, and the committees involved. The more detail that you have before you search, the better the result.
Always begin with PL number. A bill number if you know the date legislation was introduced is needed for a legislative history if a bill that did not become law. For many, Congressional Universe will be the logical place to begin since it includes the several information sources that you will need.
Other approaches, if you only know the name or subject, begin with the US Code Annotated or CCH Congressional Index to find the PL number. The code section should contain the date of passage, the PL number and the Statutes at Large cite. Lexis is an excellent source for recent bills in its GENFED library, BILLS file. With the public law number, you can use a wide variety of resources to locate more information. Westlaw also provides databases of compiled legislative histories.
The CIS Index [LexisNexis Congressional]
contains legislative histories arranged by date and PL number with a
good subject index. This is the most comprehensive listing of compiled
legislative histories. Legislative histories are found in volume 3 with
abstracts and index in volumes 1 and 2. Congressional
adds more full-text and some secondary publications. Excellent
and saves much time if you have access.
The The Congressional Record Index provides bill numbers and the History of Bills and Resolutions section gives public law numbers for enacted bills. The Daily Digest section gives bill numbers for each PL. Subject and bill name indexes should identify the dates of votes on a bill. From 1985, CR can be searched via the GPO Access web site and Thomas.
Detailed analysis of legislation is sometimes found in legal periodicals when laws have been challenged in the federal courts or are particularly controversial. The LEXIS library LAWREV (Law Reviews) and WESTLAW work well or you may use the standard hard copy sources.
The University of Tennessee Law Library holds many useful resources for compiling federal legislative histories, including an easy to use handout.
The U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News is a West publication with a legislative history focus. It is issued monthly with annual cumulations. It contains the full texts of public laws for each session. Legislative history volumes contain some committee reports.
The United States Statutes at Large issued by the GPO contains legislation since 1789, and indexes by popular name, subject, and sponsor. It is a very large set and some libraries have experienced problems with the volumes. The digital version from GPO Access has good search capability.
The The Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report is especially useful for tracking complex legislation with several amendments or researching the political background. It also includes recorded votes.
