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Finding Bills and Other Legislative Information |
Finding a Bill Number
CIS US Congressional Committee Prints Index.
Gov Docs Congressional Reference, Z 1223 .Z7 C 66
Indexes committee prints,1830-1969.
CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index
Gov Docs Congressional Reference, Z 1223 .A2 C5
Indexes hearings, 1833-1969.
CIS Index to Publications of the United States Congress
Gov Docs Congressional Reference, J 69 .C58, 1970-
Monthly, with annual cumulations. Excellent indexing and abstracts of bills,
reports and hearings, but there's a lag in indexing. Annual cumulation includes
a Legislative History volume that can be used to select a topic or expand
upon one.
Congressional Quarterly Almanac
JK1 .C663 , Gov Docs Congressional Reference, 1948-
Provides an overview of what Congress has done during a year, and discussion
of major issues with chronologies and bill numbers. Appendices include public
laws, House and Senate roll call votes. It provides a good source for patrons
looking around for an issue, as well as a good summary for those who have
a topic in mind but don't know a lot about it.
Congress and the Nation
JK 1021 .C6, Gov Docs Congressional Reference
1945/1964-1989/1992
Covers national government, politics and public policy. Organized into broad
subject areas, such as economic policy, it provides a discussion of the issues
and activity year by year. Appendices include key votes, members of
Congress and Congressional Committees, presidential appointments. Good source
for those looking for a topic or for a good review of one.
Major Legislation of the Congress
96th Congress-101st Congress (1979-1992)
Gov Docs Congressional Reference, LC 14.18:
Brief summaries of legislative issues and description of the major legislation
related to that issue, organized into broad subject areas.
CRS Review
(1983-1992)
Gov Docs stacks, LC 14.19:
Discusses major issues before Congress and provides bill numbers.
Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report
JK1 .C15, Main, current issues in PRR, 1956-
CQ covers everything that goes on in Congress; has periodic and annual indexes;
useful to determine dates, chronologies, bill titles and numbers.
National Journal
JK1.N28, Main, current issues in PRR, 1976-
Similar to the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report.
What To Do With the Bill Number
Full Text Bills on the Web
Thomas
Texts of bills from the 101st Congress, 1989-
GPO
Access
Texts of bills from the 103rd Congress, 1993-
Bills on Microfiche, 1980-
Government Documents has House and Senate bills and resolutions on microfiche beginning with the 96th Congress in 1980. To find the bill you have to use the Cumulative Finding Aid for Congressional Bills and Resolutions, Gov Docs Congressional Reference, GP 3.28.
The first page of the cumulative finding aid gives you the call number where you will find the bills, resolutions, joint resolutions and concurrent resolutions listed. When you look up the bill number it will tell you the fiche number where you can find that bill.
Congressional bills and resolutions are all at call number stems beginning with Y 1.4.
Bill Summaries, 1938-1990
Digest of Public General Bills, 1938-1955
Gov Docs stacks, LC14.6:
Digest of Public General Bills and Selected Resolutions,
1955-1966
Gov Docs stacks, LC14.6:
Digest of Public General Bills and Resolutions, 1967-1990
Gov Docs stacks, LC 14.6:
The Best Web Sites for Legislative Information
These sites are comprehensive, well organized, and extremely user-friendly.
Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet
Information from the Library of Congress about legislation and the Congress. It includes
Provides general information about the Senate, its history, committees, and visitor information. Includes
U.S. House of Representatives Web Server
Provides general information about the House, the legislative process, committees, and visitor information. Includes
Other Information
Voting Records
Project Vote Smart. A wealth of facts on candidates & elected officials, including biographies, addresses, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances, and evaluations by special interests.
From Time's Pathfinder web site, enter your ZIP code and find out how your Senators and Representatives voted on important legislation. Also on Pathfinder is Congressional Quarterly VoteWatch.
C-SPAN has votes organized by member, month or subject.
Votes are updated after every vote on U.S. Congressional Votes from Congressional Observer Publications. Also on this web site is Missed House Votes.
Special Interest Group Ratings
VIS (Voter Information Services) Ratings of the U.S. Congress has voting records with a score that relates that vote to the positions of various advocacy groups, ranging from the ACLU to the Chamber of Congress.
Project Vote Smart gathers ratings from all special interest groups and represents votes as a percentage of agreement with particular interest groups. They are also in the process of doing the same for state legislators.
The American Civil Liberties Union also rates your elected officials.
The Christian Coalition maintains a congressional scorecard listed by state delegation.
The American Conservative Union rates current members of Congress and maintains a ratings archive for 1971-1997.
Eye on Congress from the League of Conservation Voters has recent voting records on environmental issues. Scorecards from 1993-1997 are also available.
Who's My Member of Congress?
Congressional Directory From GPO Access, 1995-
Congressional Pictorial Directory, 105th Congress, 1997.
CONGRESS.ORG provides the name if you provide the ZIP Code.
Glossaries
C-SPAN Congressional Glossary. Browsable and searchable.
LEGI-SLATE Glossary of Congressional and Regulatory Terms: A-L. M-Z.
Legislative & Congressional Archives
The Center for Legislative Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration is the repository for the historically valuable records of the U.S. Congress.
Most private and personal papers of Members of Congress are geographically dispersed in repositories around the country. A list of Congressional Collections at Archival Repositories is available from the University of Delaware Library.
Legislative Information for States
Michigan
Legislative Information Web Server . Constructed
by the Library of Michigan, provides full-text search of all documents, including
House and Senate bills, as well as links to other related web sites,
including House and Senate Committee schedules. Many documents are in PDF
format.
MultiState: State Legislative Presence on the Internet. Links to the legislative web site of each state, whether information is full text and comments on the quality of the state website.
GoverNet Affairs, State Legislative Database Search. Not all states are included, Michigan isn't, but it's expanding daily.
National Conference of State Legislatures Has links to the internet sites of the state legislatures, legislator home pages by state, the partisan breakdown of state legislatures and more.
Full-text state statutes and legislation on the Internet. From Prairienet.
Michigan State University Libraries |