Legislative Branch - Congress - Government Documents - LibGuides at Otterbein University

HOT Topics & News

Recovery.gov
An informative web site designed to allow the public to monitor the progress of the stimulus package.
GovTrack
Brings together information on the status of federal legislation, voting records, and other congressional data from official sources. Provides email updates and RSS/Atom feeds for all aspects of Congress.
U.S. Congress Votes Database
From the Washington Post, contains roll call votes from 1991 to the present.

CRS Reports

Everycrsreport.com
EveryCRSReport.com is a project of Demand Progress in collaboration with the Congressional Data Coalition — a bipartisan coalition founded by Demand Progress and the R Street Institute to promote open legislative information.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research arm of the US Congress. With its $80 million budget and 800 employees, it issues about 3,000 briefs, reports, short issue papers and longer position papers per year.

An arm of the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service is renowned for its non-partisanship and in-depth analysis, but it does not make its reports available to the public. However, it cannot prevent members of Congress from giving them out individually and some government agencies from posting reports they find relevant. Perhaps 1000 have become available on the web.

There are a number of places you may want to search for these reports.

CRS Report Finder
essentially details on doing a Google search just for CRS documents.
Dept of State reports
Reports requested by the State Dept.
AIR University
Air Force listing of reports that tend to focus on defense, homeland security, and foreign affairs.
University of North Texas
A collection of reports housed at the University of North Texas.

Historical Legislation

Congressional Serial Set - pre-1817
Includes House and Senate Documents and Reports; reports usually concerning proposed legislation or issues under investigation. Documents address many topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations or reports of special investigations made for Congress.
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Note: SU Library has almost every volume of the Serial Set: 1789-1969 as part of LexisNexis Congressional

For SU database sources on current legislation look at the main U.S. Government Information tab

Federal Register 1936 - 2007
Backfile of Federal Register, from Hein Online.
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For SU students, faculty, and staff only.
U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1873.
Annals of Congress (1789-1824)
These Annals (also called Debates and Proceedings) cover the 1st Congress through the first session of the 18th Congress.
Register of Debates (1824-1837)
Provides summaries of the "leading debates and incidents" of each session.
The Congressional Globe (1833-1873)
Contains the debates of Congress from the 23rd Congress, 1st Session through the 42nd Congress.
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)(1976-present)
The CGP is the finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online.

Current Legislation

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
Congressional Record
Transcripts of all discussion and debate from the floor of Congress. Note: Otterbein's Library has older issues of the Congressional Record in the Government Documents section on the 2nd floor.
Federal Register
The official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. Includes 1994 (Volume 59) to present
Federal Register 1936 - 2007
Federal Register from Hein Online.
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For SU students, faculty, and staff only.
RegInfo.gov
A guide to Federal regulatory information from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA).
Regulations.gov
"... the public face of the Federal E-Government eRulemaking Program, facilitates public participation in the Federal regulatory process by improving the public's ability to find, view, and comment on Federal regulatory actions."
Code of Federal Regulations (GPO)
The CFR is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. Each volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar year and is issued on a quarterly basis.
Code of Federal Regulations (Cornell)
Another interface to the CFR, provided by the Legal Information Institute (Cornell). Links to the official version from GPO Access (listed above).
US Code
Arranges federal law into titles (subjects). Includes current and one previous edition (1994 forward).
US Code (Cornell)
Generated from the most recent official version made available by the US House of Representatives. From the Legal Information Institute (Cornell).
Legal Information Institute (Cornell)
Organizes law by topic, provides overviews and many links to related web resources. Includes congressional, judicial and state legislative information (codes, regulations, constitutions, etc.).