Research & Subject Guides: Political Science: Legislative Process

Recommended Databases

Academic Search Complete
Date coverage varies, back to 1887. Scholarly, multi-disciplinary database. Covers over 6100 fulltext journals, 5100 peer reviewed journals, and indexing for over 10,000 journals. Non-journal publications are also indexed.

CGP, Catalog of Government Publications
The CGP is the newest finding tool for federal publications. it includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online. Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general key word. Advanced searching is also available.

CQ Researcher
CQ Research Plus Archive is a database of in-depth, authoritative reports on a full range of political and social-policy issues extending back to 1923. Each report is footnoted and includes an overview, background section, chronology, bibliography and debate-style pro-con feature, plus tools to study the evolution of the topic over time.
Digital National Security Archive
1942-present. Fulltext. Over 63,000 of the most important declassified documents central to U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. Includes presidential directives, memos, diplomatic dispatches, meeting notes, White House communications, email, confidential letters and other secret material.
JSTOR
Coverage begins with the first issue of a journal, some as early as the 1600s, and continues up until 1-to-5 years ago. An online archive of core scholarly journals in most fields of study. Comprised of high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. Not a source for recent articles.
New York Times (Historical)
Coverage: 1851-3 years ago.

Online access to page images and fulltext articles from the New York Times as far back as the first issue.

Washington Information Directory Online
2013-2014. Guide to national, governmental, and non-profit organizations in the Washington, D.C. area. Includes contact information for congressional committees, state officials, diplomats, policy groups, foundations, and other institutions. Provides organizational charts and browsing by topic, and organization type and name.

ProQuest Congressional
1789-present. Some fulltext from early 1990s-present.Subjects covered include U.S. bills, committee prints, Congressional Record, Code of Federal Regulations, documents, Federal Register, hearings, laws, legislative histories, members, and regulations.

Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS) and Issue Briefs
Selected CRS reports dating back to 1999. The Congressional Research Service works for Congress. Not all of it's reports are publically available unless going through one's congress person or making an FOIA request.
Congressional Research Service Reports
This website is a creation of the Federation of American Scientists organization. Access to the reports is topical.
Open CRS, Congressional Research Services for the People
Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports that are already in the public domain. CRS Reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report.

The Legislative Process
A series of videos from Congress.Gov describing an overview, processing of legislative bills, committees, calendars, the House Floor, the Senate Floor, Executive Business in the Senate, Resolving Differences and Presidential Actions.
Legislative History of a New York State Law: a tutorial and guide to library sources
Prepared by librarians at the State Library as a guide for anyone seeking to compile a legislative history of a New York State law. It provides a summary of appropriate reference sources and materials, most of which are available at the State Library.

Learning about the Legislative Process (U.S. Senate)
This website outlines the authority for legislative power and provides links to topics such as bills, filibusters and cloture, nominations, senate legislative processes, Senate Rules, treaties and vetoed legislation.
Legislation, Laws, and Acts
Resides on the website of the United States Senate. Discusses Laws and Acts, The United States Code, Bills, and Active Legislation.
U.S. Senate
The web page provides a biographical directory and lists of senators and links to their homepages. Also included are resources for committee hearings, several links back to Thomas (now Congress.gov), lobbying disclosures, legislative statistics (past 20 years), treaty information, reference resources and a section on art.
U.S. House of Representatives Committee Hearings
Dates vary according to what each individual committee has put online.
Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents
January 2009 – present. It includes such materials as executive orders, speeches, press conferences, communications to Congress and Federal agencies, appointments, nominations, press releases and Acts approved by the President.
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Also included are proclamations, statements regarding bill signings and vetoes, reorganization plans, resignations, retirements, nominations submitted to the Senate, and White House announcements

Congress.gov
Congress.gov is the official source for federal legislative information. It replaces the nearly 20-year-old THOMAS.gov site. The site includes materials on current and past legislation, the Daily Digest version of the Congressional Record, links to Congessional committees, their hearings and reports (1995-present) and an explanation of the Legislative Process.

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
Currently online are the papers for Presidents George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George "W. Bush and Barack H. Obama. Each Public Papers volume contains the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were issued by the Office of the Press Secretary during the specified time period.. .

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The appendices to the Public Papers contain additional material that has been previously published in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents

Paper copies of the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States are available in the Main Library Stacks at J80 .A283 The volumes the library owns are

1929-1932/1933,1945,1947-1953,1955-1976/1977 Bk. 3,1977 Bk 2-1980/1981 Bk 1,1980/1981 Bk 3-