FEDERAL SOURCES

ONLINE SOURCES
See this additional webliography for more online sources related to Federal Law.

The Internet provides several opportunities to access legislative materials. Several useful websites are listed below. Many of these web sites will provide links to other informative sites.

House of Representatives

Senate

THOMAS: Legislative Information on the Internet

GPO Access: Legislative

Records of Congress at the National Archives

Project Vote Smart  Includes Congress Track, with Status of Legislation, Appropriation Bills, Week at a Glance, General Information

C-SPAN Online: Congressional Glossary

C-SPAN Online: Congressional Vote Search

C-SPAN Online: Congressional Directory

C-SPAN Online: Congress Resources

Congressional Record Index (1983-2006)  via GPO Access

History of Bills (1983-2006)  via GPO Access

SPECIFIC PUBLICATIONS

Federal Register
Includes current day's issue, as well as links to pending and newly enacted legislation, as well as Presidential Documents and Executive Orders.

Weekly Compiliation of Presidential Documents
Published every Monday. This is the official publication of presidential statements, messages, remarks, and other materials released by the White House Press Secretary.

Department of Justice
News, ADA, Inmate Locator, Patriot Act Information, Office of Special Council.

United States Government Printing Office

Federal resources by topic, depository libraries, agency websites, government publications catalog, and a Multi-data base search engine.

Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI news, reports and publications, history, issues and concerns.

Department of Homeland Security
Immigration, Emergency management and elder publications, as well as programs, fact sheets and advisory system.

Congress (Years) Where to go Comments
1st - 91st (1789-1969) Serial Set Indexes:

For Rpts. & Docs: Burgundy books

For Hearings: Blue books

House and Senate Reports and Documents are in print on Deck 3.

Hearings will be in microfiche form, unless Library has retained a print copy.

91st(2) - present
(1970-present)
CIS Indexes (Black books)

Refer to reports, docs AND hearings.

Reports and docs in print, Deck 3.

Hearings in fiche only, unless Library has retained a print copy.

78th(2) - present
(1949 - present)
USCAAN (Row 10A, Deck 4) Public law text; references to legislative materials. May be edited, so check other sources.
Recent Legislation
THOMAS

GPO Access

THOMAS and GPO Access are mainly good for 103rd Congress to the present.


Quick look at the legislative research tools available in the library

Legislative Process Guide to Legislative Activity
Bill is introduced and referred to committee Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
CIS Index
CCH Congress. Index
Congressional Bills & Resolutions, 1823-1873  (American Memory)
THOMAS
Committee holds hearings Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
CIS Index
CCH Congress. Index
THOMAS
Committee recommends passage Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
CIS Index
CCH Congress. Index
THOMAS
Calendar of House/History of Legis.
Chamber debates Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
Chamber votes Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
CQ Almanac
House/Senate Journal
CIS Index
THOMAS
Bill is sent to conference Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
CIS Index
USCCAN
THOMAS
Presidential statements CQ Weekly Reports
CIS Index
Public Papers of the President
Weekly Compilation of Pres. Docs
Law Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
CQ Almanac
CIS Index
Calendar of House/History of Legis.
Statutes at Large
U.S. Code
USCCAN
Veto Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
CQ Almanac
CIS Index
Calendar of House/History of Legis.
Public Papers of the President
Weekly Compilation of Pres. Docs
Overriding a veto Congressional Record
CQ Weekly Reports
CQ Almanac
CIS Index
House/Senate Journal

Other guides to compiling Federal legislative histories

Federal Legislative History Research: a Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent   by Richard J. McKinney and Ellen A. Sweet. Published by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington. D.C. Last revised in May 2006.

Electronic Sources for Federal Legislative History Documents with Years/Congresses Available  by Richard J. McKinney. Published by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington. D.C. Last revised in November 2006.

The Legislative Process   compiled at the Herbert H. Lehman Social Sciences Library, Columbia University

 

Subscription Based Sites

Legislative History
Johnson, Nancy P. Sources of compiled legislative histories: a bibliography of government documents, periodical articles, and books, 1st Congress-94th Congress . Littleton, Colo: Published for the American Association of Law Libraries by F.B. Rothman, 1979-
KF42.2 1979
Also available on HeinOnline

Reams, Bernard D. Federal Legislative histories: an annotated bibliography and index to officially published sources . Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, c1994.
KF42.2 1994

Union List of Legislative Histories: 1993 supplement updates information through the 102nd Congress, 1992, 6th Edition; Littleton, Colo.: F.B. Rothman & Co., 1993.

CIS Annual . Washington, D.C.: CIS, 1970-
REF KF49 .C62
Includes Index, Abstracts and Legislative Histories, and Four Year Cumulative Index volumes and provides access to CIS microfiche. Microfiche contain committee reports hearings and prints.

CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Prints Index: From the Earliest Publications through 1969 . Washington, D.C.: CIS, c1980.
REF Z1223 .Z7 C65 1975

CIS Serial Set Index . Washington, D.C.: CIS, c1975-c1997.
REF Z1223 .Z7 C65 1975
Provides access to congressional documents in print set and microfiche set and includes Index and Carto-bibliography of maps, 1789-1969.

United States Code Congressional and Administrative News . St. Paul, Minn.: West Pub Co., 1944-

The U.S. Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports bound by session of Congress. It began publication with the 15th Congress, 1st Session (1817). Documents before 1817 may be found in the American State Papers. In general, it includes: committee reports related to bills and other matters, presidential communications to Congress, treaty materials, certain executive department publications, and certain non-governmental publications.

During much of the 19th century, especially in the pre-Civil War era, the Serial Set included materials originating not only from the U.S. Congress but also key Executive Department publications that were published only or primarily in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.

The U.S. Congressional Serial Set is now available in a digital version, including maps and plates.

Digitized from the original print volumes in partnerships with leading academic institutions and government organizations, the set features high-resolution full-color digital images, fully searchable OCR-generated ASCII text and full bibliographic metadata for every publication. It is cross-searchable with American State Papers, 1789-1838, which contains every legislative and executive document of the 1st through 14th Congresses.

 

 

 



JURISDICTION

Supreme Court web site contains opinions from the latest term, links to other sites with opinions (including ALSO/LAWSOURCE and Findlaw), as well as court rules.

On the Docket
Case lists and features for 2005-2007 US Supreme Court cases, Court News and controversial decisions.

Thomas, the Congressional web site, is an excellent source for recent legislation and bill texts and histories.

Federal Judicial Center
Federal court operations, procedures, Court Histories and Landmark Legislation.

FedWorld
Department of Commerce portal to Federal Court Information. Government research and agencies, IRS Forms.


U.S. Courts
Links to individual courts, Circuit map, newsroom and employment in the Federal Court system.

Sally Waters / Julieanne Stevens
September 2007

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