United States Legislative Branch

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Legislation

Legislative Process

How Our Laws Are Made
Provides a basic outline of the steps of federal lawmaking process.
Learn About Congress [Center on Congress]
Guides to how members decide to vote, the legislative process, the role of Congress, etc.
The Legislative Process [House of Representatives]
A summary explanation of how the legislative process works.
Resumes of Congressional Activity
Provides statistical data about the workload of each Congress.

Dictionaries & Glossaries of Legislative Terms

C-SPAN Congressional Glossary
Glossary of over 250 legislative terms.
Congressional Bills Glossary
Presents abbreviations for types of legislation, abbreviations for versions of bills, definitions of types of legislation, and definitions of common versions of bills.
Glossary of Terms in the Federal Budget Process
Glossary of legislative terms associated with the budget process.
Senate Glossary
Provides brief definitions of terms related to Congress and the legislative process.

Sessions of Congress

Session Dates of Congress
Lists session dates of Congress since 1789.

Congressional Calendars

The agenda for each chamber of Congress.

House Calendars
The House Calendar contains a history of both House and Senate bills and resolutions that have been reported or considered by either house. In addition, the issue for the first legislative day of each week that the House is in session includes a legislative history of bills through conference, an index of short titles, an index of major subject headings, and an alphabetical index.
Senate Calendar of Business
Contains a listing of daily Senate activities and Senate committee membership.

Congressional Rules and Procedures

House Rules and Procedures

Rules and Precedents that Govern the U.S. House of Representatives
House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House
House Rules and Manual
House Committee Procedures
House Floor Procedures
Resolving Differences with the Senate

Senate Rules and Procedures

The legislative process on the Senate floor is governed by a set of standing rules, a body of precedents created by rulings of presiding officers or by votes of the Senate, a variety of established and customary practices, and ad hoc arrangements the Senate makes to meet specific parliamentary and political circumstances. A knowledge of the Senate's formal rules is not sufficient to understand Senate procedures, and Senate practices cannot be understood without knowing the rules to which the practices relate.

Senate Legislative Process
Riddick's Senate Procedure
Senate Manual
The Legislative Process on the Senate Floor: An Introduction

Committees

House Committees

House Committees
Links to House Committees web pages, membership, hearings, etc.

Committee Jurisdictions
The subject areas of legislation each committee is responsible for when considering legislation.

Senate Committees

Senate Committees
Links to House Committees web pages, membership, jurisdiction, hearings, etc.

Bills

THOMAS 1973 to present
THOMAS is the best source on the Internet for congressional information. It contains the full text of bills since 1989 (i.e. starting with the 101st Congress) plus summaries of bills since 1973 (i.e. starting with the 93d Congress).

THOMAS also permits you to track legislation by viewing the history of bills. That is, you can determine the status of a bill currently before Congress. You also can determine the final status of a bill introduced in a previous Congress. Bill status is available since 1973.

GPO Access 1993 to present
Full text of Congressional bills since 1993 (103d Congress). You can search by keyword, by Congress, and browse bills by Congress or type of legislation.

History of Bills since 1983
Lists legislative actions on bills that are reported in the Congressional Record. A typical entry includes a bill number, title, summary, names of sponsors and cosponsors, and a chronological list of actions on the bill.

House Bills and Resolutions 1799-1873
Includes links to images, and browse lists for dates, keywords & committees for bills originating in the House. Covers the 6th through 42nd Congresses, 1799-1873.

Senate Bills and Resolutions 1819-1873
Includes links to images and browse lists for dates, keywords and committees for bills originating in the Senate from the 16th Congress (i.e. 1819) through the 42nd Congress (i.e. 1873).

Committee Hearings

Committee hearings contain oral testimony, frequently accompanied by supporting documentation, in support of or against the bill under consideration.

In the past most congressional hearings were published two months to two years after they were held. With the growth of Federal government electronic publishing, many congressional hearings now are available electronically free of charge on the Internet or via subscription services such as LexisNexis Academic.

THOMAS
Contains hearing transcripts starting with the 105th Congress (1997). Also contains links to the schedules and oversight plans of House Committees.

GPO Access
Links to a limited number of Congressional hearings starting in 1997.

Additional Sources

Committee Reports

Committee reports describe the purpose and scope of a bill and the reasons for committee approval of the measure. Committee reports are significant documents generated in the legislative process.

THOMAS
Contains Committee Reports since the 104th Congress (1995). It is possible to search the reports by word/phrase, by report number, by bill number and by Committee. It also is possible to browse a list of Committee Reports.

GPO Access
Selective Committee reports since 1995.

Congressional Documents

Congressional documents originate from congressional committees and cover a wide variety of topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress, and annual reports of non-governmental organizations.

GPO Access since 1995.

Floor Action & Debate

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873
Contains the full text of all of the House Journal, Senate Journal and Senate Executive Journal, Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, and Congressional Globe up to 1873 (1st through 42nd Congresses). Also offers documents on the Continental Congress and constitutional debates (1774-89) in the Journals of the Continental Congress, Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 and Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Elliot's Debates).

House Journal [1991-1999]
The Journal is a record of the proceedings of each legislative day in the House. The Journal - not the Congressional Record - is the official record of the proceedings of the House and certified copies thereof are admissible in judicial proceedings.

Congressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session.

THOMAS
Contains the full text of the Congressional Record since 1989 and the Congressional Record Index since 1994.

GPO Access 1994 to present
Full text of the Congressional Record since 1994 plus the Congressional Record Index since 1983.

Votes

House Roll Call Votes
House roll call votes since 1990.

Senate Roll Call Votes
Senate roll call votes since 1989.

Project Vote Smart
Selected votes of individual Members, along with other information

Conference Reports

Similar bills on the same subject matter may be approved by the House and the Senate. These bills then may be referred to a Conference Committee to reconcile differences in the two versions. Conference Committees are composed of members of both the Senate and the House.

The Conference Committee normally will hammer out a compromise text accompanied by an explanatory statement and send it back to both chambers in a conference report. (The conference report, unlike other committee reports, is always published in the Congressional Record and is assigned a House report number.) If both chambers agree to the conference report, the measure is sent to the President.

Most legislation that has cleared Congress does not need to go through a conference, but controversial legislation and appropriations measures typically require a conference.

THOMAS
Contains Conference Reports (under the "Committee Reports" heading)starting with the 104th Congress (1995).

Legislative History

Legislative History refers to the chronology of steps a bill took as it moved through the process. The term also refers to the collection of documents generated by committees and floor debate on the bill. Federal agencies, attorneys and the courts review that history to verify Congressional intent on the bill as a guide to interpreting a law.

Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent
Detailed outline with links to a written narrative. Prepared by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.

Laws

THOMAS
Contains the full text of laws since 1973. Public laws are listed sequentially in law number sequence and bill number sequence.

GPO Access
Contains the full text of laws since 1995.

United States Statutes at Large 1789-1873
Every law, public and private, ever enacted by the Congress is published in the Statutes at Large in order of the date of passage. The seventeen volumes presented in this online collection cover the laws of the first forty-two Congresses, 1789-1873.

United States Code

The United States Code is the codification (i.e. arrangement by subject) of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is divided by broad subjects into 50 titles.

LexisNexis Academic
Ccontains the United States Code Service.

GPO Access
Contains the 2000 and 1994 editions of the U.S. Code, plus annual supplements. Search Tips provides helpful hints for searching the United States Code.

U.S. Code Classification Tables [2001 to date]
These tables show where recently enacted laws will appear in the United States Code and which sections of the Code have been amended by those laws. Sorted by Congress, then by either Public Law or U.S. Code section. Updated within one to two days of federal legislation enacted into law.

Constitution

Constitution of the United States

U.S. Constitution, Analysis and Interpretation
Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. 1992 Edition with 1996, 1998 and 2000 Supplements.

Biographical Inforamtion

Official Sources

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Biographical sketches of members of Congress since 1774.

Congressional Directory
Official directory of the U.S. Congress, which presents short bibliographies of each Member of the Senate and the House, and includes additional data such as his/her committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistant and/or secretary, room and telephone numbers. 104th Congress (1995-1996) to the present.

Congressional Pictorial Directory
Photographs of the President, Vice President and members of Congress. 105th Congress (1997) to present.

House Members
Includes information related to the political party affiliations of the House, the number of Representatives and Delegates who have served in the House and Senate, and the Congressional Apportionment.

Party Leaders in Congress, 1789-2004: Vital Statistics
Presents tables that provide historical data, including membership, service dates, party affiliation, and other information, for 15 House and Senate party leadership posts.

Unofficial Sources

Project Vote Smart
Biographical details and contact information for over 40,000 candidates and elected officials, including all members of Congress.

Elected Officials [C-SPAN]
Searchable database (zip code, state, name) of elected officials, including the President and members of Congress.

Legislative Support Agencies

Congressional Budget Office
Provides Congress with objective, timely, nonpartisan analyses needed for economic and budget decisions and with the information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process.

Congressional Research Service
The Congressional Research Service [CRS] is a department of the Library of Congress, works exclusively as a nonpartisan analytical, research, and reference arm for Congress. The CRS mission is to support an informed national legislature. There is no comprehensive source for CRS Reports. CRS Reports can be found at:

Federation of American Scientists
Extensive collection of CRS reports on: Intelligence and Related Issues, Space and Science, Nuclear, Chemical and Missile Weapons and Proliferation and Military and National Security.
Franklin Pierce Law Center
Excellent collection of relatively recent CRS reports on intellectual property, cyberlaw and electronic commerce.
GlobalSecurity.org
Selected CRS reports on global security and related issues
Information Warfare Site
A very good collection of reports largely on foreign affairs topics such as national security, terrorism, intelligence and international relations.
National Council for Science and the Environment
Extensive collection of reports dealing with the environment, energy and other natural resources subjects.
Thurgood Marshall Law Library
Extensive collection of CRS reports on a wide variety of topics.
U.S. State Department
Selected CRS reports on foreign relations. See also Selected CRS Reports on Foreign Relations & U.S. Policies from the U.S. Embassy in Italy.

Library of Congress
The Library's mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.

Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the investigative arm of Congress. GAO examines the use of public funds, evaluates federal programs and activities, and provides analyses, options, recommendations, and other assistance to help the Congress make effective oversight, policy, and funding decisions.

GAO Reports are reports on audits, surveys, investigations, and evaluations of Federal programs conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office.

Government Printing Office
The Government Printing Office (GPO) keeps America informed. For nearly 140 years, GPO has produced and distributed Federal Government information products.

Office of Technology Assessment Archive
The congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) closed its doors September 29, 1995. For 23 years, the nonpartisan analytical agency assisted Congress with the complex and highly technical issues that increasingly affect our society. Site contains full text of many OTA publications.

Lobbyists & Political Contributions

opensecrets.org [Center for Responsive Politics]
Extensive review of congressional campaign fund raising issues. Excellent site for data and information regarding campaign finance and fund raising.

Political Money Line
Comprehensive non-partisan site for federal candidate campaign money. Excellent site for data and information about campaign contributions, PACs, and soft money.

Federal Election Commission - Information About Candidates, Parties and Other Committees
Extensive review of congressional campaign fund raising issues and lobbying.

Common Cause
Includes a searchable database of special interest soft money contributions to the Democratic and Republican national party committees.

The Color of Money
Campaign contributions, race, ethnicity and neighborhood.

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