Congress

Congressional Research Tutorials http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/wikis/congresearch/index.php/Main/HomePage
From UC Berkeley, these video tutorials show you how to find Congressional materials.

GPO Access -- Legislative http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html
A nearly complete collection of everything you need by and about the US Congress.

United States Congress Online http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html

The Senate http://www.senate.gov/

Senate Virtual Reference Desk http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_index_subjects/Publications_vrd.htm

The House of Representatives http://www.house.gov/

Congressional Directory http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cdirectory/index.html
If you need more information about your representatives in Congress--find out here, with brief bios and portraits.

Congressional Record http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html
Published daily when Congress is in session, this is the official record of their work.

Hearings

U.S. Congressional Serial Set http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/
U.S. Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports bound by session of Congress. It began publication with the 15th Congress, 1st Session (1817). Documents before 1817 may be found in the American State Papers. In general, it includes: committee reports related to bills and other matters, presidential communications to Congress, treaty materials, certain executive department publications, and certain non-governmental publications. Online version covers 104th-109th Congresses 1995-

LLSDC Legislative Sourcebook http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/
A comprehensive guide to Congressional information from the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.

Congressional Bibliographies http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/congbibs/
The U.S. Congressional Bibliographies enumerate and describe meetings held by Congressional committees since 1985, those for which printed transcripts are issued, and those that remain un printed. Its sources are the Congressional Record's "Daily Digest" and bibliographic information supplied by the U.S. Senate Library. Its primary goal is to be an authoritative, exhaustive reference source of meetings held and documents released by House and Senate committees.

Thomas Homepage http://thomas.loc.gov/
From "About Thomas" the following databases are available on their web site:

    House Floor This Week
    House Floor Now
    Quick Search of Text of Bills
    LEGISLATION:
      Bill Summary & Status 93rd--current (1973 - present)
      Bill Text 101st - current (1989 - present)
      Public Laws by Law Number 93rd through current (1973 - present)
      House & Senate Roll Call Votes101st Congress -current(1990 - present)

    Congressional Record:101st - current (1989 - present)
    COMMITTEE INFORMATION:
      House and Senate Committee Reports 104th - current Congresses
      Committee Home Pages current Congress

US Code http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html
Thomas provides the text of current legislation as it was passed by Congress. The U.S. Code offers a codified (organized by topic) version of all federal laws currently in force.

U.S. Code Classification Guide http://uscode.house.gov/classification/tables.shtml
Shows where newly passed legislation will be entered into the code.

USC Popular Names table http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/topn/
In many cases the name by which the public knows a law is not the official title. This will bridge that gap when trying to locate the text.

Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS)
The Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress, serves the legislative process by providing Congress with non-partisan and in-depth legislative research and analysis on a variety of topics. CRS produces or updates more than 3,000 studies and other publications each year, none of which are distributed to the public. However many sites host reports relating to their main mission/interest providing a great public service.

Prepared by Prof. Jane Cramer and Lois Thom