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Below are links and descriptions to major databases and resources for finding federal laws or legislation. If you need help on doing a legislative history of a particular law, see Tracing Federal Legislation (prepared for POS 410).
Full Text Databases | Useful
Websites
LexisNexis
Academic (UIS Database) -- Click on Legal Research
to access federal and state court cases, law review articles,
and other legal materials.
LexisNexis
Congressional (UIS Database) -- Has both searchable
text and indexing to law and legislative information.
Click on CIS Index for
citations to older Congressional publications, back to 1970.
The Library has the publications in microfiche on Level 2.
Click on Publications
to access the searchable text of:
- Committee Prints (1993-present) -- Publication from
a particular committee that is not a Hearing, nor a Report.
Usually consists of draft legislation, situation reports,
statistical information, historical information, or legislative
analysis.
- Congressional Record (1985-present) -- Official
transcripts of debates that took place on the House or Senate
floor, as well as supplemental materials submitted by a
member of Congress.
- Congressional Reports (1989-present) -- Published
findings of a House or Senate committee on an issue that
passed the committee.
- Congressional Documents (1995-present) -- Presidential
messages on legislation or vetoes, or special reports from
Congressional committees or federal agencies.
Click on Testimony to
access the searchable text of:
- Testimony in Congressional Hearings (1988-present,
though 1988-1993 coverage is limited) -- Testimony, both
prepared and discussion, where the House or Senate
committee asked witnesses to testify on a subject. Witnesses
can include persons from the Presidential Administration,
sponsors or co-sponsors of the legislation, lobbyists, and
others knowledgeable about the subject. Information provided
by Federal News Service (FNS) and Federal Document Clearing
House (FDCH). This database does not provide the entire
contents of Congressional Hearings. To find a citation to
an entire Hearing, click on CIS
Index.
Click on Bills to access
the searchable text of:
- Bills (1989-present) -- Proposed legislation by
a member of Congress
- Bill Tracking (1989-present) -- History of a particular
bill, e.g. when it was proposed, who sponsored it, when
it was sent to committee, and when it was signed into law.
Click on Laws to access
the searchable text of:
- Legislative Histories (1969-present) -- Summary
of enacted legislation and links or citations to relevant
Congressional Reports or Hearings.
- U.S. Code Service (current) -- Annotated version
of the U.S. Code, all the federal laws arranged by subject.
- Public Laws (1988-present) -- Individual federal
laws.
Click on Regulations
to access the searchable text of:
- Code of Federal Regulations (current) -- Administrative
rules and regulations of the federal agencies, arranged
by subject.
- Federal Register (1980-present) -- Daily publication
of rules, proposed rules, and notices of federal agencies
and organizations, as well as executive orders and other
presidential documents.
Other databases include Congressional Member
information, Committee
information and schedules, articles from the National
Journal and CongressDaily under Inside
Washington, and selected Hot
Bills/Topics.
GPO Access
-- Collection of 100 databases to 35 types of full text resources.
Most of the databases are separated by individual years of coverage,
so you can (or must) limit your search to a particular Congressional
year.
List of
all the databases.
Form
for searching more than one database.
- Bills
(19August 10, 2009
- Committee
Prints (1997-present) -- Draft legislation, situation
reports, statistical information, historical information,
or legislative analysis. Not every committee print is online.
- Hearings
(1997-present) -- Committee asked witnesses to testify on a
subject. Not every hearing is online.
- Congressional
Documents (1995-present) -- Special reports from the
President (i.e. veto messages), committees or agencies.
- House,
Senate & Executive Reports (1995-present) -- Findings
of a House or Senate committee.
- Congressional
Directory (1996-present) -- Who's who in Congress,
as well as directories to agencies, members of the press,
and foreign embassies.
- Congressional Pictorial Directory (1997-present)
-- Who's who in Congress with pictures.
- Congressional
Record (1995-present) and Congressional
Record Index (1983-present) - Transcripts of debates
that took place on the House or Senate floor
- Constitution
of the United States: Analysis & Interpretation
(1992 & 1998 supplement) - Annotated version of the Constitution,
with summaries of Supreme Court cases that dealt with constitutional
issues.
- History
of Bills (1983-present) - Information about all bills
and resolutions introduced during that session of Congress
in a special section of the Congressional Record Index.
- Public
Laws (1995-present) - Individual federal laws.
- U.S.
Code (current) - Federal laws arranged by subject,
broken into 1994 version plus annual supplements.
- Other
Congressional publications
Thomas: Legislative Information
on the Internet - The Library of Congress' website to
Congressional publications. Databases include searchable text
of:
- Bills
(1989-present) - Text of proposed legislation.
- Bill
Summary & Status (1973-present) - Summary of proposed
legislation and what happened to it.
- Committee
Reports (1995-present) - Findings of a Committee on
bills the Committee passed.
- Congressional
Record (1989-present) - Transcript of floor debates
and other inserted materials.
- Historical
Documents - Declaration of Independence, Federalist
Papers, Constitution, etc.
Westlaw's Campus Research (UIS Database, temporarily on-campus only) -- full text access to West publications for statutory law (United States Code Annotated, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register), case law from all federal levels, as well as secondary sources such as law reviews, American Law Reports (ALR) and American Jurisprudence 2d. After linking to database, read the terms of the user "agreement" and scroll to the bottom. Then click GO to access the actual database.
- American
Law, by Subject - Selected Internet resources on legal
issues, created by University of Chicago's D'Angelo Law Library.
- FindLaw - Comprehensive
portal to legal information on the Internet. Keyword search
or browse their categories.
- Federal Judiciary Homepage - Official website for the Federal Court system. Contains news
and publications, statistics, and links to all the federal courts websites. (Court cases themselves
are on the individual court's websites.)
- Legal Information
Institute - Cornell Law School's guide to the law and
Internet legal resources.
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