This page of links is included with the materials in our course: 

• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories: Searching for Legislative Intent

• The PDF for the June 26, 2009 session of How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories is here (35-page pdf )

Capitol Learning Audio Courses

• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments in a Nutshell

• Researching Federal Legislative Histories: Bills, Resolutions, Committee Hearings, and Committee Reports

• Researching Legislative Histories: Finding Legislative Intent in Bills and Committee and Conference Reports

• Researching Federal Legislative Histories: Statutory and Code Research

• Statutory Construction: A Primer on How to Read and Understand Statutory Text
  

Detailed Legislative Process overviews, created by the House and Senate parliamentarians are available via Thomas

• How Our Laws Are Made treats the process from the perspective of the House of Representatives.

• Enactment of a Law presents a similar overview with emphasis on procedures in the Senate.

• The House Rules Committee site features an extensive collection of links on how Congress works. Particularly useful are the Parliamentary Outreach Program resources, and the links to Congressional Research Service Reports on the legislative process

• Learning About the Legislative Process found at the Senate's Homepage, is a detailed narrative description of the Senate's legislative process. The site also features a Glossary of Legislative Terms

• TheCapitol.Net Glossary of Legislative Terms

• To keep track of years and sessions of Congress when doing older legislative histories, consult the Session Dates Table provided by the Clerk of the House.
   

For guides to compiling a legislative history, see the following web sites:

• University of Michigan Documents Center Legislative Histories 

• LLSDC's Legislative Source Book 

  • A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent

  • "Internet and Online Sources of U.S. Legislative and Regulatory Information," by Richard McKinney (9-page pdf )

  • "Electronic Sources of Federal Legislative History Documents With Years/Congresses Available," by Richard McKinney  (3-page pdf )

• Zimmerman's Research Guide
   

• Congress Online 2003, a report from CMF "examining the use of Web sites and other forms of online communications by congressional offices".  (92-page pdf )

• The Virtual Chase provides some guidelines for evaluating the quality of information on the internet.
   

• The best place to begin to locate a bill is Thomas.  Bill text goes back to the 101st Congress (1989), and bill summary and status goes back to the 93rd Congress (1973).  

• GPO Access  provides the text of bills since the 103rd Congress (1993) and the History of Bills  since 1983.

• The truly adventurous may want to try the LOCIS database at the Library of Congress.  It covers only the 93rd to the 105th Congresses, but it has functionality such as cross-Congress searching. (See http://www.copyright.gov/records/)
   

• The Law Librarians Society of DC provides a web page with quick links to these committee pages.

• Selected hearing transcripts since the 104th Congress can be searched at GPO Access or at the Committee links at GPO under Miscellaneous House and Senate Publications.

• Committee web sites often provide the text of transcripts.  Try the list of committee links at Thomas and also on TheCapitol.Net's Congressional Leadership page.

• The Online Library at the Senate Judiciary Committee site is very comprehensive.

• Capitolhearings.org provides audio links to Senate hearings and markups.

Selected hearing transcripts including questions and answers are available from commercial subscription services.

• CQ.com (Congressional Quarterly)

• The Federal News Service

Hearing testimony can also be found on the web sites of the organizations whose leaders appeared before a Congressional committee.  For example:

• The Center for Democracy and Technology
   

• Thomas  provides committee reports going back to the 104th Congress (1995)

• GPO Access provides similar coverage, and includes Executive Reports.

• A Digital version of the Serial Set  is being created by LexisNexis

• Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) - from the Law Library of Congress
   

• The Congressional Record is online at Thomas and full text goes back to the 101st Congress (1989).  The Congressional Record Index at Thomas goes back to the 103rd Congress, second session (1994). 

• The Congressional Record can also be searched at GPO Access. Full text is available from 1994.

• The Index is available from 1983.
   

• United States Public Laws (U.S. Government Printing Office, GPO Access) - Provides access to United States Public laws enacted since the 104th Congress, 1st Session (January 1995). 

  • Catalogs of Public Laws: 104th, 105th, 106th, 107th, 108th, 109th, 110th, 111th. 

  • Public Laws - Helpful Hints

  • History of Line Item Veto Notices 

• United States Public Laws (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)

  • Laws from Current Session

  • Receive E-mail Notification of New Laws

• Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) - from the Law Library of Congress

• THOMAS (Legislative Information from the Library of Congress)

• United States Statutes at Large (Law Library / National Digital Library Program) The seventeen volumes presented in this online collection cover the laws of the first forty-two Congresses, 1789-1873.

• The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School: Selected Statutes of the United States 
   

• United States Code (U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Law Revision Counsel) - Offers introductory material to the Code and access to a search engine. The database reflects the current edition and supplements of the United States Code as printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office (January 5, 1999). 

  • Download the United States Code

  • Search the United States Code

  • Search Prior Versions of the U.S. Code - beginning with the 1988 ed., suppl. II

  • United States Code Classification Tables - 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.

• United States Code (U.S. Government Printing Office, GPO Access) - Provides a search engine for searching the 1994 editions, plus supplement 4 (January 5, 1999 for titles 1-41) 

  • Description

  • General Searching Instructions

  • United States Code - Helpful Hints

• United States Code (Cornell Legal Information Institute) - Provides an updated interface to the U.S. Code, with links to notes and legislative activity through THOMAS. 

  • Find US Code Materials by Title and Section

  • List of Titles

  • Search Engine

  • Table of Popular Names

• Popular Names - from American Law Sources Online
   

• The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents contains executive orders, speeches, and press conferences.  It can be searched online at GPO Access since 1993. 

• The White House  web site also maintains a searchable database of presidential documents.

• Archived versions of the White House website can be accessed through the Internet Archive

• Another useful site for locating the records of defunct government agencies is Cyber Cemetery maintained by the Government Documents Department at the University of North Texas.
   

• Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act

• Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998

• NAFTA 

• National Institute of Health

• NIH Legislative Chronology 

• Appropriations Legislation from the 104th Congress

• Endangered Species Act pathfinder at LLRX

• Detailed outline of the legislative history of specific provisions of the Social Security Act

• The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act

• Legislative History of the First Transcontinental Railroad

• Use THOMAS to create an online legislative history
   

• GPO's Legislative page has links to House and Senate Calendars and to selected volumes of the House Journal.

• An historical collection of House and Senate Journals can be found at the Library of Congress Century of Lawmaking page.
   

•  News:

  • C-SPAN

  • Congressional Quarterly

  • The Hill

  • Roll Call

  • Project Vote Smart

  • Speakout.com

• Directory Information:

  • Congress.org

  • House Office of the Clerk

  • Senate

  • TheCapitol.Net's Congressional Directory

• Congressional Research Service Reports:

  • Open CRS

  • List from Truman State University's Library

  • Congressional Research Service reports on the legislative process from the House Rules Committee site.

  • Selected reports on the environment from the National Library for the Environment

  • Selected reports from the Federation of American Scientists
     

• opensecrets.org 

• Voter Information Services
   

• American Law Sources Online

• Full Text State Statutes & Legislation on the Internet 

• Lawguru.com

• National Association of State Chief Information Officers

• National Conference of State Legislatures

• State Legislative Presence on the Internet

• State Compiled Legislative Histories
   

• The Guide to Law Online - from the Law Library of Congress

   

• ALA Government Information Clearinghouse & Handout Exchange

• Boston University Law Library - Legislative History Research

• Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent - from the Law Librarian's Society of Washington, DC

• The George Washington University Law School, Jacob Burns Law Library - Finding Statutes & Legislative History

• Georgetown University Law Center, E.B. Williams Law Library Research Guides - Federal Legislative History

• Ohio State University Libraries - Resources for Compiling a Legislative History

• University of California: Berkeley Library - Sources for Legislative and Regulatory Information

• University of Michigan Documents Center - Legislative Histories United States Congress

• University of Michigan Documents Center - Legislative Research

• University of Washington School of Law, Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library - Federal Legislative History

• Villanova School of Law Library - Federal Legislative History

Quick DC Links - Washington Essentials