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Congress and Legislation

U.S. House of Representatives
Includes links to legislation sponsored and cosponsored by member as well as directory information and committee assignments. The House site also includes a number of publications on the history of the House, rules, introducing bills, committee action, floor action, the budget process, resolving differences, and presidential actions.
U.S. Senate
Includes brief biographies of senators, directory information, and committee assignments.
FDSys
This database from the Government Printing office contains House and Senate Reports and Documents, pictorial directories, Calendars of the House and Senate, Congressional hearings, Congressional Record, and much more.
Congressional CU
Full text service which provides access to Congressional bills and bill status, legislative histories, hearings, Congressional Record, congressional reports and documents, biographical, financial and voting record information, laws, proposed and existing regulations, searchable full-text journals and other information.
Thomas
Legislative information From the Library of Congress includes bill summary and status, bill text, Congressional Record, selected House Hearing transcripts, Committee Prints, Public Laws and other information. Most information from the 102nd Congress to the present.
CQ Electronic Library CU
Includes CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, as well as the CQ Voting and Elections Collection.
OpenCongress
Combines government data with news coverage, social network feeds and blog posts, and public comments to present an overview of Congressional member activity, donations received, bill and committee actions, and voting. Funded primarily by the Sunlight Foundation.

CQ Electronic Library CU
Includes CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, as well as the CQ Voting and Elections Collection.
FDSys Congress site includes the full text of bills, the Congressional Record, congressional reports, documents, hearings, committee prints, history of bills and other information. See Definitions of Document Status Codes for definitions of terms used to describe the status of a bill.
How Our Laws Are Made and Enactment of a Law from the Library of Congress.
A simpler view of the legislative process is available from Ben's Guide to U.S. Government, an overview of the U.S. government, legislative process, duties of citizens, and other topics. Arranged by grade level, with sections for teachers and parents. Includes facts about states and links to state web sites.
Congressional CU
Full text service which provides access to Congressional bills and bill status, legislative histories, hearings, Congressional Record, congressional reports and documents, biographical, financial and voting record information, laws, proposed and existing regulations, searchable full-text journals and other information. Check out their Help page for information on coverage, search form advice, and Dates of Congressional Sessions.
Legislative Histories:
- 1983-Current Year--History of Bills from FDSys.
- Bill Summary and Status for the 93rd (1973/74) -current available from Thomas
LLSDC's Legislative Source Book
Compiled by the Law Librarian's Society of Washington, D.C., the sourcebook provides a guide to Internet and subscription-based sources of regulatory information, legislative histories, committee hearings, establishing persistent links to documents from FDSys and Thomas, and other information.
Public Policy Matrix
A guide to researching the legislative process. With sections on identifying the problem, legislative and executive solutions, influences on legislators, influences on the executive branch, and monitoring the result. Although the guide refers to some resources specific to the University of Michigan, most resources are available to the CU campus.
Session Dates of the U.S. Congresses, 1789-present
List of dates congress was in session.
Thomas
Legislative Information From the Library of Congress includes bill summary and status, bill text, Congressional Record, selected House Hearing transcripts, Committee Prints, Public Laws and other information. Most information from the 102nd Congress to the present.
Govtrack.us
Allows for the creation of customized tracking tools to follow specific bills and congress people, while providing information overall on bill statuses, committee actions, voting records, and district maps.
Politiwidgets
Provides predefined and customizable widgets on members of Congress, encapsulating their voting records, earmarks, contributors and sponsorships for use on blogs and Web sites.

Congressional Budget Office
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) was created by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. CBO's mission is to provide the Congress with objective, timely, nonpartisan analyses needed for economic and budget decisions and with the information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process." Site includes reports and testimony on bills under consideration by Congress.
Congressional CU
Full text service which provides access to Committee Prints, CRS Report, Hearings, House & Senate Documents, House & Senate Reports, Legislative Histories, and selected reports from the Serial Set.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set
FDSys provides access to contains the Congressional Documents and Congressional Reports from 1995 to present. For coverage from 1817-1980, see the US Congressional Serial Set. CU
U.S. GAO Reports and Testimony
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. Often called the "congressional watchdog," GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.

Compiling a Member Voting Record
This is a guide from the Library of Congress to some of the complexities in finding Congressional voting records.
Congress.Org
Search recent votes on the Congressional Vote Search.
C-SPAN
This web site includes: House and Senate Schedules, Directory of Members, Committee information, and a Congressional Vote Search.
Congressional Member records CU
This database contains floor and key votes for each member back to the 101st congress in 1989-90.
Project Vote Smart
Choose a State. Then choose the Senator or Representative by name to access the voting record.
Roll Call Votes
This is a link to roll call votes, by congress and session back to the 101st congress from the Library of Congress.
The U.S. Congress Votes Database
This site from the Washington Post allows you to browse every vote in the U.S. Congress since 1991.

Almanac of American Politics (ask for password at reference desk)
This site provides capsule summaries of states, congressional districts, congressional redistricting, biographies of elected officials (President, Vice-President, Governors, Senators, and Congressional Representatives), election results, campaign finance, basic demographic data, and other information. Password available from any reference desk.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present
Contains biographies of all members of the national legislature from 1774 to the present, including representatives, senators, presidents, vice presidents, and delegates to the Continental Congress.
Congressional Directory from Congress.org
Search for members of Congress by zip code, name, party, chamber, or committee. Contains biography, contact information and staff members, background information, sponsored legislation, key votes, committees, and term information.
Congressional Directory 104th Congress to the present.
Congressional Pictorial Directory 105th to the present

American FactFinder
This site provides demographic data from the 2000 census by federal and state legislative district.
Census Street Address Search
Enter a street address, city, state, and ZIP code. You can then choose to display Census 2000 data and maps on the state, county, county subdivision, census tract, block, place, voting precinct, congressional, and state legislative districts in which the address is found.
Congressional Directory Demographics from Congress.Org
Lists age, gender, marital status, party, ethnicity, and religion for all current members of Congress.
Fast Facts for Congress
This page from the Census Bureau provides demographic and economic data based on address, state, county or Congressional District. You can also find announcements on new data released and links to relevant data sets.

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation
This American Memory collection includes browsable, searchable versions of official documents from early congresses. The House and Senate Journals, Senate Executive Journal, Annals of Congress, Statutes at Large and Maclay's Journal are now online. In addition, the collection contains materials from the Continental Congress, including Journals of the Continental Congress, Elliot's Debates, and Farrand's Records.
Congressional CU
Full text service which provides access to Committee Prints, CRS Report, Hearings, House & Senate Documents, House & Senate Reports, Legislative Histories, and selected reports from the Serial Set.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set CU

Congress.org
CQ Electronic Library CU
This database includes CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, CQ Almanac Online Edition, and CQ Global Researcher
The Hill
A capitol newspaper.
Lexis-Nexis Academic CU
Full-text access to comprehensive news. News sources U.S. newspapers and wires, foreign newspapers and wires, major world newspapers and publications, radio and television transcripts, newsletters, and blogs.
Roll Call Online
This newspaper includes policy briefings, committee assignments, information on new members, richest Senators and Representatives and other information.
Politics in Congress
Congressional politics coverage from the Washington Post.

C-SPAN: Congressional Glossary
How Our Laws Are Made and Enactment of a Law from the Library of Congress
A simpler view of the legislative process is available from Ben's Guide to U.S. Government, an overview of the U.S. government, legislative process, duties of citizens, and other topics. Arranged by grade level, with sections for teachers and parents. Includes facts about states and links to state web sites.
Compiling a Member Voting Record
This is a guide from the Library of Congress to some of the complexities in finding Congressional voting records.
LLSDS: Legislative Source Book
Compiled by the Law Librarian's Society of Washington, D.C., the sourcebook provides a guide to Internet and subscription-based sources of regulatory information, legislative histories, committee hearings, establishing persistent links to documents from FDSys and Thomas, and other information.
Public Policy Matrix
A guide to researching the legislative process. With sections on identifying the problem, legislative and executive solutions, influences on legislators, influences on the executive branch, and monitoring the result. Although the guide refers to some resources specific to the University of Michigan, most resources are available to the CU campus.

The Library Catalog, Chinook
There are numerous secondary, federal, and international sources of information on welfare and welfare reform available in the collection.

Try these searches to see some of the resources in Chinook , the library catalog:

Electronic Resources	Print and Electronic Resources
hearings and senate	hearings and senate
reports and congress	reports and congress
legislative hearings	legislative hearings
(senate or house) and report* (government publications only)	(senate or house) and report* (government publications only)

The * can replace up to five characters.