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Federal Legislative Branch Laws

Federal legislative resources contain the laws issued by the U.S. Congress. Also known as "statutory law," these laws include the acts passed by Congress as well as the documents associated with the legislative process, such as bills, reports, and hearings.

U.S. Congress

• Senate
  Main homepage -- includes directories, background information, tourist information
• House of Representatives
  Main homepage -- includes directories, schedules, background information

U.S. Code

• U.S. Code at House of Representatives
  The official site; use Cornell (below) for better searching; remember to check for currency

• U.S. Code at Cornell Legal Information Institute
  Copied from House of Representatives; good search functions; remember to check for currency
• U.S. Code for Browsing - at Government Printing Office
  Also an official site; best for browsing section by section; remember to check for currency

Congressional Agencies

• General Accounting Office
  Writes policy reports and evaluates government programs for Congress; full text of all their reports available on their WWW site
• Library of Congress
  Main homepage -- includes information on the Library, schedules, access to its catalog
• Congressional Research Service
  Writes policy reports at Members' request; reports generally not published, although some available at fthe following sites:
• • CRS Report (Penny Hill Press)
    Offers abstracts of selected Reports (1991-present) and it gives you order information
  • CRS Reports (Thurgood Marshall Law Library)
    The Thurgood Marshall Law Library has collected many CRS Reports and organized them by topic. It also links to other subject archives.
• Office of Technology Assessment Archive
• OTA was a Legislative agency that wrote reports to Congress on technology and policy; closed in 1995; its reports are archived here by Princeton University

Legislative Directories

• Congressional Directory
  Official printed directory; includes biographical information; links to text or pdf files. [Also available in print at KF4935 .A152]
• Congressional Pictorial Directory
  Contains photos only, no biographical information, of all members of Congress
• Biographical Directory of the Congress, 1774 - present
  Pictures (when available) and short bios of everyone who has ever served in Congress
• Project Vote Smart
  Various information on Members of Congress, including rankings by many special interest groups.
• Congressional Staff Directory [Available in print at JK1012 .C65 ]
  Provides addresses, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web addresses of congressional staff members. Provides selected biographies, and photographs. Also provides information about committees, subcommittees, and staff members.
• The Washington Information Directory provides contact information for Congress (and other government and non-governmental groups) including names, phone numbers, fax numbers, addresses. Available in print at F192.3. W33.

Legislative News

• Roll Call
  Website of the semiweekly newspaper covering "people, politics, and process" in Congress
• CongressDaily (Georgetown Community Only)
  A daily WWW newsletter covering Congress and its activities

Research Techniques and Tools

• Research Guide: Federal Legislative History
  How to do a legislative history, i.e., find Congressional documents related to a particular bill; prepared by the Library staff

Congressional Universe (Georgetown Community Only)
Congressional publications and current legislation in full text, covering 1970 - present. Similar to CIS's Congressional Masterfile and microfiche set

• THOMAS
  Official Library of Congress portal to all types of Congressional information, including searching text of bills and complete legislative history
• GPO Access
  Official text of bills & laws, Congressional Record, Federal Register -- from Government Printing Office
• Legislative Sourcebook
  Useful compilation from the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC
• How To Compile a Legislative History
  A straightforward guide from Columbia University.

Historical Legislative Research

• A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873
  Full text and page images of complete historical documentation of Congress's first century, from Library of Congress
• Biographical Directory of the Congress, 1774 - present
  Pictures (when available) and short BIOS of everyone who has ever served in Congress

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