U.S. Federal Government Documents

Brigham Young University Hawaii

Joseph F. Smith Library

U.S. Legislative Information

Section Links:	The United States Congress	Members of Congress
Congress in Action	Presidential Action/Statements	Laws

 

The United States Congress

• U. S. Senate Home Page
• U. S. House of Representatives Home Page

Sites With Congressional Focus

• United States Legislative Branch A Library of Congress Internet Resource Page -- Search or Browse this site for links to the following information:
  • Members
  • Contact Information
  • Issues, Legislation, Campaigns
  • The History of Congress
  • Partisan Congressional Sites
  • Voting Records
  • Index Services
  • New Services
  • Educational Resources
• Years of Congress Table -- Years, Numbers and Dates of Sessions for Congress from the 1st Congress in 1789 to the current Congress in session.
• Legislative Histories - Guide via U. Michigan -- A guide for preparing a legislative history class assignments, utilizing both paper and online resources
• Legislative Branch Resources via Columbia U.-- A guide to paper resources at Columbia University Libraries and to materials on the Internet for doing research on the U.S. legislative branch and Congress
• Records of Congress (National Archives) -- The Center is the repository, reference center, and outreach facility for the historically valuable records of the U.S. Congress. Records date from the First Congress to modern Congresses.
• Congressional Collections at Archival Repositories via U. Delaware -- A guide to Internet sources of archival repositories of congressional information (primarily personal papers)
• Congressional Research Service Reports -- Full text of recent CRS reports. Twenty-four categories allow for searching specific topics
• Congressional Research Service Reports -- Full text of recent CRS reports from the House Rules Committee
• C-SPAN Audio and Video Congressional Coverage -- Live audio and video of floor action in the House and Senate
• Fednet Audio Congressional Coverage -- Live audio proceedings of floor action in the House and Senate and selected committee hearings
• Project Vote Smart Reference Resources on Congress -- Resources which cover the foundation of Congress, the legislative process, and other background information on the functioning of Congress.
• Roll Call Online -- Congressional news, policy briefings, commentary, election information and congressional directory

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Members of Congress

Directories:

• Congressional Directory via GPO Access. Searchable version of the Congressional Directory, beginning with the 104th Congress
• Congressional Pictorial Directory Pictures of each member of Congress
• Congressional Directory via University of Michigan Documents Center. Links beginning with the 103d Congress to lists of Congressional web pages, e-mail addresses, office addresses, telephone and fax numbers

Biographical and Political Information:

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 - Present Historical directory of biographical information about members of Congress
• CongressWatch via ABC News -- Searchable database of information about members of Congress
• Project Vote Smart Current Members of Congress -- Members are listed by name and linked to biographical and political performance information.

Ratings of Members by Special Interest Groups:

• Project Vote Smart Choose "Performance Evaluations," follow the links.
• Voter Information Services (VIS) VIS Ratings are calculated by advocacy groups who closely watch legislation before Congress and report supportive votes of senators and representatives

Campaign Finance Contributions

• Center for Responsive Politics Campaign finance data for Congress, presidential hopefuls, and everyone who ran for federal office in 1998. Includes campaign finance data and lists of individuals and PACs who made contributions, with the amount of their contribution
• FEC Info Public Disclosure, Inc. The nonpartisan Federal candidate campaign money page Includes campaign finance data and lists of individuals and PACs, with the amount of their contribution
• Federal Election Commission Information About Candidates, Parties and Other Committees. A view of candidates financial contributions from several perspectives.
• Project Vote Smart compiles detailed breakdowns of campaign finance contributions for elected officials and candidates for office.
• Soft Money Laundromat A searchable database of special interest soft money contributions to the Democratic and Republican national party committees. Learn about soft money. Who gives it, who gets it and what it all means for our democracy.

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Congress in Action

Text of Congressional Bills

• Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet -- Search full text of bills from 101st Congress (1989-90) to the present
• CRFilter -- A free service that works with THOMAS to help you monitor your specific interests in the Congressional Record since 1993.
• Congressional Bills via GPO Access -- All published versions of bills from the 106th (1999-2000), 105th (1997-1998), 104th (1995-1996) and 103rd (1993-1994) are available

Status of Legislation and Legislative Histories

• Thomas: Bill Summary and Status -- A Searchable database of the status and legislative histories of bills for the 106th, 105th, 104th Congresses.
• Thomas: Previous Congresses -- A Searchable database of bills beginning with the 93rd Congress (1973-74) through the 104th Congress (1995-96)
• Project Vote Smart: CongressTrack -- A citizen's tool kit for tracking Congress.
• House Calendar via GPO Access -- Calendars of the U.S. House of Representatives and History of Legislation. Includes 104th, 105th, and 106th Congresses.
• History of Bills via GPO Access -- A Searchable database of legislative histories, 1983-1999. The History of Bills and Resolutions is a section of the Congressional Record Index that provides information about all bills and resolutions introduced during that session of Congress. The database is updated daily, usually the day after publication of the Congressional Record.
• Congressional Record Index (1983-1999) -- The Congressional Record Index is a publication of the Joint Committee on Printing, Congress of the United States. The database is updated daily when Congress is in session and indexes the daily issues of the Congressional Record.

Committee Information and Publications

• Congressional Hearings via GPO Access -- A Searchable database of the limited number of hearings available, 105th and 106th Congresses
• Congressional Hearings on the Web via U. Michigan Documents Center -- Links to hearings and transcripts
• House Committee Hearings -- Links to text of selected House committee hearing transcripts
• U.S. Senate Bibliographies: A Comprehensive Listing of Hearings, Prints, and Publications Printed by the Senate, 1983 to the Present A bibliographic, not full text database
• Thomas: Committee Reports -- Searchable databases of committee reports, beginning with the 104th Congress
• Senate, House and Executive Reports via GPO Access -- Searchable database of House, Senate and Executive Reports, beginning with the 104th Congress (1995-1996) to present
• Senate, House and Treaty Documents -- A Searchable database of Senate, House, and Treaty documents, beginning with the 104th Congress (1995-1996) to present
• Today in Committee Some Schedules for House committee meetings for the current legislative day
• Thomas: House Committee Hearing Schedules and Oversight Plans. Schedule of House committee meetings for the current legislative day
• Legislative Activities -- Senate Committee Meeting/Hearing Schedule -- A brief description of each committee meeting and hearing scheduled to take place today, and on days thereafter. Meetings that have been canceled or rescheduled are also noted.

Floor Proceedings

• Thomas: Congressional Record -- Searchable and browsable Congressional Record and Congressional Record Index.. Congressional Record begins with the 101st Congress (1989-90) Congressional Record Index begins with the 103rd Congress, 2d session (1994)
• Congressional Record via GPO Access -- Searchable full text of the Congressional Record beginning 1995 to 1999 (Volumes 141 to 145)
• Congressional Record Index via GPO Access -- Search the Congressional Record Index (1983-1999)
• U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873 via Library of Congress --Text of floor proceedings for the 1st and 2d Congresses.
• Current House Floor Proceedings (Today) -- Current activity on the House floor, updated throughout the day
• C-SPAN This Week in Congress -- Brief schedule of anticipated activities on the floor of the House and Senate for the current legislative week.
• Program for the Remainder of the Week --House floor schedule for the remainder of this week, with links to relevant documents
• Senate Calendar of Business via GPO Access -- A searchable list of Senate activities for each legislative day, beginning with the 104th Congress (1995-1996)

Floor Votes

• U.S. House of Representatives Roll Call Votes -- as compiled through the electronic voting machine by the House Tally Clerks under the direction of the Clerk of the House. Begins with the 101st Congress, 2d session (1990) to the present
• Thomas: Senate Roll Call Votes -- Beginning with the 101st Congress, 1st session (1989) to the present
• Legislative Activities: Senate Roll Call Votes -- Recorded votes from the current Congress and several prior Congresses. The vote number, date of the vote, bill number if applicable, result of the vote and the description of the question on which the vote was taken is given. Includes Roll call votes taken today and this week, and earlier Congresses beginning with the 101st Congress, 2d session (1990)
• Thomas: House Roll Call Votes links to the House of Representatives roll call vote information compiled by the staff of the Office of the Clerk of the House from the electronic voting system.
• Project Vote Smart: Congressional Roll Call Votes -- provides access to ALL Congressional votes and maintains a collection of major votes divided by issue category. Roll call votes on selected issues begin with 1989

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Presidential Action/Statements

• Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents via GPO Access -- Statements, messages, and other Presidential materials released by the White House during the preceding week. Published every Monday, it contains data from the January 11, 1993 issue to the present.
• White House News --Documents released to the public including transcripts of the President's speeches and press conferences, press briefings, policy statements, fact sheets and announcements of nominations. Items are listed by date, many can be listened to via audio links.
• The White House--In Focus -- Provides major Presidential remarks and speeches in both written and audio formats.

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Laws

• Thomas: Bill Summary & Status: Previous Congresses -- Browsable lists of public laws enacted from the 93rd Congress (1973-1974) through the 104th Congress (1995-1996)
• Public Laws via GPO Access -- Searchable database of a collection of laws enacted enacted from the 104th Congress (1995-1996) to the present. Includes links to catalogs of available Public Laws (with HTML links) 104th, 105th and 106th congresses.
• U.S. Code via The U.S. House of Representatives -- Titles 1 through 50 of this database are currently up-to-date through January 26, 1998
• U. S. Code via GPO Access -- Searchable database of the U.S. Code in effect as of January 26, 1998. This database contains the general and permanent laws of the United States.
• U. S. Code via Cornell -- Searchable full text database of the U.S. Code (includes laws as of January 1, 1998 for titles 1-26 and laws passed as of January 1, 1997 for titles 27-50