Government Documents
Your Source for U.S. Government Information
Legislative Branch Information Sources
Websites and Online Resources
- How Our Laws Are Made
- Electronic version of a brochure produced by Congress to explain the steps involved in creating legislation.
- United States Senate
- The official website of the U.S. Senate includes information on members, committees, and more.
- United States House of Representatives
- The official House website contains information about Representatives, committees, text of the US Code and slip laws.
- THOMAS (Library of Congress)
- Contains text of bills from current and previous Congresses. Also has vote information, legislative histories, the Congressional Record, and more.
- U.S. Congress Conference Reports
- Contains the full text of conference reports from current and past Congressional sessions. (A conference report is an agreement on legislation that is negotiated between the House and Senate via conference committees. It is printed and submitted to each chamber for its consideration, such as approval or disapproval.)
- Biographical Direcory of the U.S. Congress
- Search for biographies of Senators and Representatives.
- Virtual Reference Desk of the U.S. Senate
- A clearinghouse of Senate information on the Web and guides to resources in libraries and archives.
- Additional Legislative Resources via GPO Access
- An additional listing of online information sources for Congress, maintained by the Government Printing Office.
Databases provided by UWG
- LexisNexis® Congressional
- Similar to THOMAS, but can contain more historical Congressional Information.
- Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set
- The bound, sequentially numbered volumes of all the Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives constitute a rich source of primary source material on all aspects of American history.
Print Resources
- Congressional Record (Documents Stacks: X 1.1: )
- Bound volumes of the official record of proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. Years 1994— also available online.
- Statutes at Large (Documents Reference AE 2.111: )
- The permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress.
- U.S. Code (Documents Reference: Y 1.2/5: )
- The official codification of U.S. Law, published every six years. Simple text versions of 1994 and 2000 editions available online.