Legal Research Guide

Congressional Bills: Tracking by Subject, Sponsor, Status, Bill Number

Print/Micro

• Congressional Index (Docs Abstr J 69 C6) From 96th Congress (1979/80) to the 106th Congress (1999/2000) 

• Digest of Public General Bills & Resolutions (Docs LC 14.6) From the 83rd Congress (1953/54) to the 101st Congress (1989-90) Gives history of actions taken on bills, a summary of the bill, and indexes by sponsor and by subject. 

• "History of Bills and Resolutions" 1873 to the present. Appears annually in the Congressional Record(Docs X/A)
• House Journal (Docs XJH)and Senate Journal(Docs XJS) 1789 to the present; records matters considered by the House and Senate, including bills introduced and votes and other actions taken. Index to each session includes a subject index and a table of actions taken for each bill. Prior to 1954 the House Journal and the Senate Journal appear as part of the Serial Set. See the US Serial Set Index (Docs Z 1223 Z9 C65 1975)for serial set numbers.

Free on the Internet

• Bill Summary and Status (Thomas-Library of Congress) From 93rd Congress (1973/74) to the present. Search by bill number, keyword, sponsor, status in legislative process, committee, or date of introduction.

 Active Legislation US Senate) Alphabetical listing of active legislation by subject or popular title. Updated at least weekly when Congress is in session.

• Govtrack.us (Joshua Tauberer) Independent website containing information collected daily from Thomas and other official government websites. Search current bills and older legislation back to 1999 by bill number, bill fulltext keywords, committee assignment, section of US Code to be amended, and bill subject. Bills contain links to Congressional Budget Office estimates on cost of legislation and organizations who have made major contributions to bill sponsors and cosponsors. Set up email or RSS alerts for specific bills, committees or subjects. 

• History of Bills (US Government Printing Office) From 1983 to the present; updated daily. Includes actions that are recorded in theCongressional Record and gives page and date where the action is reported. Browse by date; search by keyword or retrieve by citation. 

• House Journal and Senate Journal  (Library of Congress) From 1789 to 1875.

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

• Bill Tracking by Bill Number or Bill Tracking by Keyword (subject and popular name) From the 100th Congress (1987/88) to the present; updated daily. Search by bill number, subject keyword, popular name, sponsor or status; and use other limits as appropriate.

 

Congressional Bills: Text 

Print/Micro

• Congressional Bills (Docs Y 1.4 microfiche) From 97th Congress (1981/82) to the 106th Congress (1999/2000); accompanying print guide to the microfiche is Cumulative Finding Aid, House and Senate Bills.

Free on the Internet

• Bill Text (Thomas-Library of Congress) From the 101st Congress (1989/90) to the present. 

• Bills and Resolutions (Library of Congress) Historical collection of bills and resolutions covering House bills from the 6th Congress (1799-1800) to the 42th Congress (1871-73); Senate bills from the 16th Congress (1819-1820) to the 42th Congress (1871-73); and Senate Joint Resolutions from the 18th Congress (1824-25) to the 42th Congress (1871-73). Browse by date or search by keyword.

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

• Bills (Full Text) Includes bills from the 100th Congress (1987/88) to the present; updated daily. Search by bill number or public law number.

 

Congressional Floor Action and Debate: Congressional Record (1873 to the present); Congressional Globe 1833-1873); Register of Debates (1824-1837); and Annals of Congress (1789-1824)

(Definition: Includes transcripts of statements and debates, and recording of roll call votes on the floor of the House and Senate)

Print/Micro 

Text:

• Congressional Record and earlier titles in the series (Docs X microfilm and microfiche) In 4 parts - House proceedings, Senate proceedings, Extension of Remarks, and Daily Digest; 1789 to 1988 on microfilm; and 1989 to 2003 on microfiche.

Indexes:

• Congressional Record Index (Docs X microfilm and microfiche) Issued every 2 weeks with annual cumulations from 25th Congress (1838/39) to the present. 1938 to 1988 on microfilm; and 1989 to 2003 on microfiche. 

• CIS Annual: Legislative Histories of US Public Laws (Docs Abstr KF 49 C62) Includes references to Congressional debate on public laws from the 91st Congress 2nd Session (1970) to the 106th Congress (2000). 

Free on the Internet 

Text & Indexes:

• Congressional Record (Thomas-Library of Congress) Includes the 101st Congress (1989/90) to the present. Search Congressional Recordtext, browse the Congressional Record index, or search by member of Congress. 

• Congressional Record (US Government Printing Office) Covers 1994 to the present. Browse by date, retrieve by citation, or search by keyword (fulltext, author, etc). 

• Video Feeds from the House Floor (US House of Representatives) Includes streaming video and podcasts of "House Floor Proceedings" from 2009 to the present. Includes searchable text. 

• Congressional Chronicle (C-Span) Video archive and index of House and Senate floor proceedings, along with corresponding text from theCongressional Record. Only members who appeared on the floor to deliver or insert their remarks into the record are included. Browse by date using the Congressional Calendar, or search by member or bill. Includes House telecasts from 1979 and Senate telecasts from 1986 to the present. 

• Congressional Globe (Library of Congress) Covers 1833-1873. 

• Register of Debates (Library of Congress) Covers 1824-1837.

• Annals of Congress (Library of Congress) Covers 1789-1824.

Indexes:

• The Congressional Record Index (US Government Printing Office) Split into two files on the Internet-- the Congressional Record Index and History of Bills that lists legislative actions on bills reported in the Congressional Record.

• Browse the Congressional Record Index by date or search by keyword.

• Browse the History of Bills by date or search by keyword.

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

Text & Indexes:

• Congressional Record Includes fulltext from 1985 to the present. Updated daily. Search by keyword, member of Congress or citation.

 

Congressional Hearings and Prints 

(Definition:committee hearingscontain the transcripts of testimony presented before a committee as well as other submitted written testimony. They may be legislative, oversight, investigative or confirmation in purpose.)

(Definition:committee prints are specialized research reports commissioned by a Congressional committee to give members information on proposed legislation.)

Print/Micro 

Text:

• Hearings from the 97th Congress 2nd Session (1982) to the present are received in microfiche format and are found in the Docs Y4 classification. 

• Hearings from the 89th Congress (1965) to the 97th Congress 1st Session (1981) are included in the CIS microfiche collection. Microfiche for 1965-69 are keyed to the US Congressional Committee Hearings Index and for 1970-81 to the CIS Annual.

• Hearings prior to the 89th Congress are selectively available in print in the Docs Y4 classification.

Indexes:

• CIS Annual (Docs Abstr KF 49 C62) Covers the 91nd Congress 2nd Session (1970) to the 106th Congress (1999/2000). Includes subject and personal name indexes to witnesses who testified at hearings. 

• US Congressional Committee Hearings Index (Docs Abstr Z 1223 Z9 C57) Covers the 23rd Congress (1833) to the 91st Congress 1st Session(1969). Includes subject and personal name indexes to people who have testified at hearings. 

• US Government Publications Monthly Catalog Available online from 1976 to the present and in paper (Docs Abstr GP 3.8) from 1900 to the present. 

• HSU Library Catalog Indexes hearings added to the HSU Documents Collection since 1998

Free on the Internet

Text & Indexes:

• Congressional Hearings (US Government Printing Office) Includes hearings from the 102th Congress (1991/92) to the present. Browse by session and committee; or search by keyword. 

• Congressional Chronicle (C-Span) Video archive and index of selected House and Senate committee hearings. Includes House telecasts from 1979 and Senate telecasts from 1986. 

• Congressional Committee Prints (US Government Printing Office) Includes committee prints from the 100th Congress (1987/88) to the present. Browse by session and committee; or search by keyword.

• Capitol Hearings (C-Span) Live audio of House and Senate hearings. 

• U.S. Congressional Documents (Rutgers School of Law) Includes fulltext of approximately 14,000 hearings dating from the 1970's to 1998. 

• Catalog of U.S. Government Publications: Congressional Publications Indexes Congressional hearings and committee prints from 1976 to the present, with links to online fulltext if available. 

• Quick Links to House and Senate Committee Hearings and Other Publications (Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.)

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

Text & Indexes:

(Note: Hearings available through LexisNexis may not include everything that is included in the official printed version, especially appendices.)

• Committee Hearings Indexes hearings from 1970 to the present with links to selective fulltext. Search bykeyword (subject, popular name, committee, witness or witness affiliation) or search by bill number or public law number. 

• Commitee Prints and Miscellaneous Publications Indexes prints from 1970 to the present with links to selective fulltext. Search by keyword (subject, committee, witness or witness affiliation). 

• Congressional Hearing Transcripts Includes transcripts from three different sources of in-person testimony presented at selected Congressional committee hearings. Transcripts date from 1988 to the present. Updated daily.

 

Congressional Committee Reports 

(Definition: reports from individual committees describing the purpose and scope of a public bill or resolution and reasons for recommending it to the full Senate or House)

Print/Micro 

Text:

• Senate Reports (Docs Y 1.1/5 microfiche) Includes 96th Congress (1979/80) to the present. 

• House Reports (Docs Y 1.1/8 microfiche) Includes 96th Congress (1979/80) to the present. 

• Earlier reports are part of the US Congress Serial Set (Docs Y4)

Indexes:

• Document Index (Docs Abstr GP 3.7) Covers 1914-1933

• Numerical Lists and Schedule of Volumes of the Reports and Documents of Congress (Docs Abstr GP 3.7/2) Covers 1933-1980

• United States Congressional Serial Set Catalog: Numerical Lists and Schedule of Volumes (Docs Abstr GP 3.34) Covers 98th Congress (1983/84) to the 102nd Congress (1991/92) (Note: 97nd Congress (1981/82) published as U.S. Congressional Serial Set Supplement (Docs Abstr GP 3.8: 1981/82)

• CIS Annual (Docs Abstr KF 49 C62) Covers 91st Congress 2nd Session (1970) to the 106th Congress (1999/2000)

• US Serial Set Index (Docs Abstr Z 1223 Z9 C65) Covers 1789 to 1979.

Free on the Internet

Text and Indexes:

• Committee Reports (Thomas-Library of Congress) Includes fulltext from 104th Congress (1995/96) to the present. 

• Congressional Reports (US Government Printing Office) Includes committee reports from the 104th Congress (1995/96) to the present. Browse by session and committee, search by keyword or retrieve by citation.

Indexes:

• U.S. Congressional Serial Set: Numerical Lists of Documents and Reports (GPO Access) Covers 1991-2006

• Congressional Serial Set Catalog (GPO Access) Searchable catalog of House and Senate Reports, House and Senate Documents, Senate Executive Reports and Documents, and Senate Treaty Documents. Covers July 1976 to the present and is complete from the 95th Congress (1977-1978) to the present. Links are provided to publications when they are available online.

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

Text and Indexes:

• House and Senate Reports and Documents Indexes Congressional committee reports from 1970 to the present with fulltext available from 1990 to the present. Search by keyword (subject or popular name), bill number or public law number.

 

Legislative Histories 

(Definition: lists bills, congressional debates, committee reports, committee hearings associated with a specific legislative act; useful for determining legislative intent; see Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting Legislative Intent)

Print/Micro 

 • CIS Annual: Legislative Histories of US Public Laws (Docs Abstr KF 49 C62) Covers 91st Congress 2nd Session (1970) to the 106th Congress (1999/2000). 

• United States Statutes at Large (Docs AE 2.111 Legal Alcove) Brief legistative history accompanies each law from 1975 to the present. 

• Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories: A Bibliography of Government Documents, Periodical Articles and Books, 1st Congress-102nd Congress (Johnson) 1996 (Docs Abstr KF 42.2 1996) 

• Federal Legislative Histories: An Annotated Bibliography and Index to Officially Published Sources (Reams) 1994 (Docs Abstr KF 42.2 1994) Includes references to legislative histories compiled by congressional committees and federal agencies for legislation enacted between 1796 and 1990.

Free on the Internet

 • Public Laws (Thomas-Library of Congress) Includes text of laws enacted from 101st Congress (1989/90) to the present and summaries from 93rd Congress (1973/74) to the present. Laws are available in law number sequence, e.g., P.L. 101-76 or in bill number sequence by type of bill. For each law gives summary of all congressional actions and, since the 104th Congress (1995/96), provides links to online Congressional documents associated with each law.

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

 • Legislative Histories Covers 91st Congress (1969/70) to the present. Entries are keyed to CIS reference numbers. Depending on date includes direct links to fulltext of Congressional deliberations. Search by keyword (subject or popular name), bill number or public law number

 

Voting Records

(Roll call votes in the House and Senate are sequentially numbered starting with 1 in each session of Congress; see also Congressional Floor Action and Debate above)

Print/Micro 

• Congressional Quarterly Almanac (Congressional Quarterly) Annual (JK 1 C66) Library has from the 86th Congress (1959) to the 108th Congress (2004). Includes House and Senate roll call votes by roll call number. Includes bill number index and subject index. Also includes section on key votes

Free on the Internet

• Roll Call Votes (Thomas - Library of Congress) Records every vote taken in the House and Senate from the 101nd Congress second session (1989) to the present. Browse by roll call vote. 

• U.S. Congress Votes Database (Washington Post) Records every vote taken in the House and Senate from the 102nd Congress (1991) to the present. Browse by roll call vote, review key votes and for each member display their voting record. 

• Roll Call Votes Database (GovTrack.us) Covers 1989 to the present. Search by subject keyword or member of Congress. Compare votes of two members of Congress.

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

• Search Floor Votes (CQ Weekly) Records every vote taken in the House and Senate from the 102nd Congress (1991) to the present. Search by bill number or subject keyword; or browse by topic or date.

 

Presidential Signings and Vetoes

Print/Micro 

• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (Docs Ae 2:114:) 1923 to the present

Free on the Internet

• Compilation of Presidential Documents Composed of the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents and its predecessor, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. Covers 1992 to the present. Browse by date or search using the generic keywords "bill signings" or keywords specific to an act. 

• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (US Government Printing Office) 1991 to the present. Browse by date or search using the generic keywords "bill signings" or keywords specific to an act. 

• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (University of Michigan Digital Library) 1923 to the present

 

Public Laws

(Definition: chronological arrangement of all laws as enacted; numbered by Congress and then sequentially by date of enactment, e.g., Public Law 106-57. Laws are eventually compiled intoUS Statutes at Large volumes for each session of Congress)

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(Many laws are given a popular name and are frequently referenced by their popular name)

Print/Micro 

Text:

• United States Statutes at Large (Docs AE 2.111 Legal Alcove) Covers 1789 to the present. Updated byPublic Law Preprints or "slip laws" (Docs AE 2.1110 Legal Alcove) which are retained until a bound volume of United States Statutes at Large is published.

Indexes to Popular Names of Individual Acts:

• Shepards Acts and Cases by Popular Name (two copies--ref or Abstract Docs KF 90 S52) Compilation of popular names by which laws and cases have been referred or cited. 

• "Acts Cited by Popular Name" in United States Code, Title 50 (Docs Y 1.2/5 Legal Alcove) Lists popular names of public laws. Gives the legal citation to Statutes at Large and the United State Code.

Indexes to Parallel Statutes at Large/ United States Code Citations:

• "Table III, Statutes at Large" in United States Code, Tables volume (Docs Y 1.2/5 Legal Alcove) Beginning with 1789 lists in chronological order the location in the United States Code of each act as well as the status of the act.

Free on the Internet

Text:

• Public Laws (Thomas-Library of Congress) Includes text of laws enacted from 101st Congress (1989/90) to the present and summaries from 93rd Congress (1973/74) to the present. Laws are available in law number sequence, e.g., P.L. 101-76 or in bill number sequence by type of bill. 

• Public and Private Laws (US Government Printing Office) Includes laws from the 104th Congress (1995/96) to the present. Browse by Congress, search by keyword or retrieve by citation.

• United States Statutes at Large (US Government Printing Office) Covers 2003 to the present. Browse by volume, retrieve by citation or search by keyword.

• United States Statutes at Large (Digitized) (US Government Printing Office) Covers 1951 to 2002. 

• United States Statutes at Large (Library of Congress) Covers the laws of the first 43 Congresses, 1789-1875.

Indexes to Popular Names of Individual Acts:

• Popular Names of Acts in the U.S. Code (Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute) Lists common names for legislative acts with links to the United States Code, if the act is codified together. 

• "Table of Popular Names" in United States Code (US House of Representatives, Office of Law Revision Council) Search the "Table of Popular Names" by entering a search in the following format: "table adj popular adj names and <popular name of law>", e.g., "table adj popular adj names and taylor adj grazing adj act". Will give the legal citation toStatutes at Large and theUnited States Code.

Indexes to Parallel Statutes at Large/ United States Code Citations:

• Table III, Statutes at Large in United States Code, Tables (US House of Representatives, Office of Law Revision Council) Beginning with 1789 lists in chronological order the location in theUnited States Code of each act as well as the status of the act. 

• US Code Classification Tables (US House of Representatives, Office of Law Revision Council) Shows where recently enacted laws will appear in the US Code and sections of the Code that have been amended by those laws.

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

Text and Indexes:

• Public Laws Covers 1987 to the present. Search by keyword (subject or popular name) or by public law number or Statutes at Large citation.

 

United States Code 

(Definition; codification of all laws currently in effect; subdivided into 50 subject-oriented titles. Note: private laws and appropriation acts are generally not codified)

Print/Micro 

• United States Code (Docs Y 1.2/5 Legal Alcove) New editions published every six years with annual cumulative supplements. Includes subject index. Each section includes references to the Public Law number and the Statutes at Largevolume. Table III in the "Tables" volume shows where a Statutes at Largecitation will be found in theUnited States Code.

Free on the Internet

• United States Code (US Government Printing Office) Includes both current and historical editions back to 1994. Browse by title and section, retrieve by code citation, or search by keyword. 

• United States Code (US House of Representatives, Office of Law Revision Council) Updated on an annual basis. Search by text keyword or specific title/section.

• United States Code (Cornell University, Legal Information Institute) Browse the code; or search by exact code citation, individual Titles by keyword or the entire code by keyword. For each code section includes text notes, links to recent legislation that has amended the code section, and citations to parallel CFR regulations.

LexisNexis / Proquest Congressional (HSU Users Only)

• United States Code Service Browse by Title or search by keyword. To enter a citation in the correct format using a keyword search see Annotated U.S. Code. In addition to code text includes "History, Ancillary Laws and Directives"; references to parallel Code of Federal Regulations sections; a "Research Guide"; and "Interpretation Notes and Decisions" to judicial and administrative decisions interpreting the law. Updated several times a month. 

Here is an example of an annotated code section.