Subject Specialist:
Statistics and Data
U.S. Government Documents
814-865-0665
e-mail: sjw31@psu.edu
Subject Specialist:
Statistics and Data
U.S. Government Documents
814-865-0665
e-mail: sjw31@psu.edu
Note: [Penn State Libraries] indicates a Libraries' resource available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account
Some strategies for finding information about the issues you are researching:
Begin by searching almanacs
Almanacs provide a quick year-by-year survey of a topic as it has been discussed and debated in Congress. The titles below can be used to quickly gain an overview of how a topic has been discussed and treated in Congress.
Almanac of American Politics online [National Journal website]
Follow by searching periodical articles on your topic
Focus on articles published since the last almanac. Periodicals cover events on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Periodicals vary greatly in quality, content, and bias or political perspective. In addition, some report while others may analyze a topic in great detail.
Picking the best periodical articles can be challenging. Look for articles that provide the most complete coverage and that focus on Congress and the Executive Branch.
CQ Weekly online [Penn State Libraries]
National Journal online [Penn State Libraries]
Search newspapers for articles on your topic
Newspapers provide excellent coverage of the daily events in Congress and will often provide in-depth profiles or articles about members of Congress and the Executive Branch. Don't forget that newspapers, like periodicals, differ greatly in content and bias.
New York Times Historical (1851-2005) [Penn State Libraries]
Access World News [Penn State Libraries]
Access World News [Penn State Libraries]
Local newspapers from a member's legislative district or home state can provide additional information about a person and the area they come from. Most online newspaper sites won't include historical archives, but they can be useful for current events and developments.
Check the News and Newspaper Sources [Libraries' Research Guide] for local papers to which the Libraries subscribe and for which the Libraries retain archival microfilm holdings.
Bills can be introduced only by a member of Congress. Once introduced, they are assigned a bill number which can be used to trace activity on that bill throughout the legislative process -- until it is signed into law and receives a Public Law number. Bills are numbered consecutively as introduced in both the House and Senate. (HR.1, HR.2, S.1, S.2, etc.) Numbering begins again at the start of each new congress (every two years).
Locate the bill number and use this information to locate any bill text versions and their status in the legislative process, any relevant debate and floor statements, and any voting records.
Bills may go through several bill versions before being passed. It is frequently useful to track the changes in bill text versions in order to see what changes are being made and by whom. When introduced into Congress, every bill is assigned a unique bill number that is used to track the legislative process for each individual bill.
Congressional [ProQuest] [Penn State Libraries])
Provides bill text, bill tracking (status and locators) for bills from 1989 to the present. It also includes the full text of The Congressional Record from 1985 to the present.
THOMAS (Library of Congress)
Provides bill text, status, and locators for all House and Senate bills since 1993.
FDSys (Government Printing Office)
Provides the full text of bills, resolutions, public laws. Full text of bills is available from 1993 to the present; public laws from 1995 to the present.
Once introduced and assigned a number, bills are immediately assigned to the committee and/or subcommittee charged with responsibility for that policy area.
The committees and subcommittees may hold hearings, revise (or markup) draft bills, and recommend passage (or report the bill out of committee). The vast majority of bills "die" in committee and are not referred to the full House or Senate for consideration.
Hearings and Testimony:
This is the information-gathering phase of the legislative process - committees hear the testimony of people and organizations concerned about the policy outcome.
Markup:
As committees deliberate the merits of a piece of legislation changes are made to the bill's text. This process of committee revision is called "markup".
Reports:
The committees are charged with making recommendations on the passage of bills. This process is called "reporting out".
Once a committee has completed its work, a bill is reported out of committee to the House or Senate where the bill will be debated and possibly amended by the members of Congress. This process will be repeated in both the House and the Senate. Remember: most legislation takes several Congresses before it becomes law and that 1 out of 5 bills never becomes law.
The floor debates and statements made by members of Congress in the House or Senate are published within The Congressional Record.
C-SPAN Video Library
video coverage of congressional proceedings back to 1986.
The Congressional Record
Available in print in the Social Sciences Library, 2nd floor Paterno Library
Congressional [ProQuest] [Penn State Libraries]
provides the most flexible and powerful interface for searching the full text of The Congressional Record, which contains the official record of the debate that takes place on the floors of the House and Senate. Remember, the speakers can modify the text before publication and an additional section — The Extensions of Remarks — contains supplementary materials added at a later time.
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) provides access to the full text of The Congressional Record back to 1994
THOMAS [Library of Congress] provides access to the full text of The Congressional Record back to 1989
Votes taken on the floor of the House or Senate can be found in The Congressional Record.
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) provides access to the full text of The Congressional Record back to 1994
THOMAS [Library of Congress] provides access to the full text of The Congressional Record back to 1989
Congressional [ProQuest] [Penn State Libraries] provides access to floor votes back to the 91st Congress [1969-1970]:
Move from the default Congressional Publications search page to the Legislative Histories, Bills, and Laws page [link is on the left]
Choose the Floor Votes radio button
Roll Call Votes back to the 101st Congress [1989-1990] are available in THOMAS [Library of Congress]
Congressional support agencies conduct studies and develop policy papers at the request of congressional members and committees.
Note: [Penn State Libraries] indicates a resource available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
GAO is charged with monitoring government spending for Congress. Finding guide:
Congressional Research Service (CRS)
CRS produces objective, nonpartisan analyses of policy issues at the request of congressional members and committees. Find publications:
Congressional [ProQuest] [Penn State Libraries] — full text in PDF
Major Studies and Issue Briefs of the Congressional Research Service
Cumulative Index, 1916/1989 to the present. Studies and issue briefs prior to 1996 are available on microfilm, 1996 to the present are available on microfiche in the Social Sciences Library, Microforms Collection, 2nd Floor Paterno Library.
Open CRS
"A project of the Center for Democracy and Technology through the cooperation of several organizations and collectors of CRS Reports, Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports already in the public domain and encourages Congress to provide public access to all CRS Reports."
CRS Reports Related to the Environment
A collection from the National Council for Science and the Environment
Penny Hill Press
A listing of currently-available CRS Reports and Issue Briefs by broad topic. This company sells CRS reports but you can find most of them for free in the library. Stop at the Social Sciences Library Reference Desk (2nd Floor Paterno Library) for assistance.
Federal Government Resources / Legislative Branch / Congressional Research Service
A wide-ranging list of sites containing CRS reports from the Documents Center at the University of Michigan Library.
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
A listing maintained by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) on various topics, among them:
Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)
The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment closed on September 29, 1995. During its 23-year history, OTA provided Congressional members and committees with objective and authoritative analysis of the complex scientific and technical issues of the late 20th century.
OTA Legacy, maintained at the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton University, makes "available in electronic form the complete collection of OTA publications along with additional materials that illuminate the history and impact of the agency."
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
CBO's mission is to provide the Congress with objective, timely, nonpartisan analyses needed for economic and budget decisions. CBO publications back to 1975 can be found in PDF.
Think Tanks are organizations that perform independent research in specific policy areas, either under government contract or as a part of their organizational mandate.
Some well-known think tanks include: the RAND Corporation, The Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, The Brookings Institution, and the Urban Institute. There are many others. Find think tank information and publications:
National Institute for Research Advancement : Think Tank information page
PolicyFile [Penn State Libraries]
PolicyFile draws its content from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers. Provides links to Web resources where available. Some well-known contributors include:
Interest Groups are organizations whose members share common interests and work to promote those interests.
The distinction between a think tank and an interest group is often a subtle one. Organizations labeling themselves as think tanks, or a policy research institution at least, purport to be independent and non-partisan organizations. Interest groups are more forthright in their advocacy of policy issues related to their areas of interest. This advocacy may result in direct lobbying of congressional members.
PolicyFile [Penn State Libraries]
PolicyFile indexes policy papers from think tanks, universities, and research institutes. Where possible it makes links to internet versions of these reports.
Associations Unlimited [Penn State Libraries]
The Associations Unlimited database provides information about the organization, its members, publications, budget, key personnel (who may be testifying in Congress), and other information to help you better understand the opinions and views they promote.
