Subject Guides: Federal Resources: Legislative Branch

Congress.gov

Congress.gov
Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information, and provides access to Committees, Committee Reports and Hearings, the Congressional Record, Legislation, Members and Legislation. It replaces the former site, THOMAS.

CQ Press Political Reference Suite

CQ Press Library This link opens in a new window
CQ Press Library is the definitive reference resource for research in American government, politics, history, public policy, and current affairs. A wealth of CQ Press resources and years of journalistic and editorial expertise are combined in this indispensable reference collection.

CQ's Politics in America

Politics in America
Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America is your definitive source for information on members of the U.S. Congress and their districts. Contains in-depth profiles of every member as well as data on their constituencies, apportionment, and redistricting

Federal Election Results

Federal Elections
Every two years (since 1982), the Federal Election Commission publishes Federal Elections, a compilation of the official, certified federal election results of primary, runoff and general elections for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and, when applicable, U.S. President.

See Elections tab on the Government home for more information sources related to U.S. elections.

Congressional Data Sources

Charles Stewart's Congressional Data Page
Ready-to-use data sites relevant to studies of Congress, legislatures in general, and more collected by Charles Stewart III, Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT.

Ratings of Politicans by Interest Groups

Politican ratings - Project Vote Smart reports on performance evaluations from all special interest groups who provide them, regardless of issue or bias.

ProQuest Congressional

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Congressional offers a comprehensive collection of congressional documents from 1789 to the present. Congressional hearings offer a unique perspective on all aspects of U.S. social, economic, and political history by presenting differing views from representatives of all societal sectors, including business, industry, labor, education, health, criminal justice, and government.

Legislative Branch of Government

U.S. Senate - The senators for New York State are Charles Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand.
U.S. House of Representatives - Skidmore College is in the 20th Congressional District of New York State. Enter your zip code to Find Your Representative.
CQ Press political reference suite of online editions - of particular relevance to Congress:
--Congress and the Nation Series: The definitive source for actions of the U.S. Congress since 1945; includes legislative history, policy analysis and key votes.
--Politics in America: Lively, unbiased profiles and assessments of every member of Congress; inlcudes Congressional profiles, voting records, and Congressional District maps.
Congressional Directories - links from U. Mich.
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - search for members of Congress 1774 - present
Congressional Districts by Location- Missouri Census Data Center site's Mable-Geocorr is searchable by a variety of geographic variables.
Congressional District Data - Adler, E. Scott Adler, University of Colorado, Boulder, provides this data set of a wide range of economic, social, and geographic information for every U.S. congressional district, from 1943-1998.
Congressional District Atlas - digitized versions of the atlas via Haithi Trust.
United States Congressional District Shapefiles - Provides digital boundary definitions for every U.S. Congressional District in use between 1789 and 2012.

Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress by Martis, Kenneth C.
Call Number: Folio (Oversize) -- 4th floor (near Circular Staircase): G1201 .F9 M26 1989
ISBN: 0029201705
Publication Date: 1989-01-01

CRS Report RL33895

Researching Current Federal Legislation and Regulations
The Congressional Research Service's (CRS) guide to selected governmental and nongovernmental sources that are useful in tracking and obtaining information on federal legislation and regulations.

CRS Reports

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a division of the Library of Congress, produces analytical, non-partisan reports on topics of interest to members of Congress. In 2018, Congress passed a law directing the creation of a public access site to the reports, ending the legal requirement prohibiting CRS from providing its products to the public.

Prior to the creation of the above CRS site from LoC, there were a few archival options for locating some of the CRS reports, such as:

Archive-It Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports – Search across a wide number of CRS sites with this collection from Stanford University, Social Sciences Resource Group.
UNT CRS Archive - Search or browse by country, decade, or topic the University of North Texas Digital Library archive of CRS reports.
Selected CRS Reports - Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. provides some 36 alphabetically arranged CRS reports and links to most other CRS Reports on the Internet. (Be sure to scroll down this page!)

Some topical collections:

U.S. Dept. of State - Browse CRS reports on foreign policy or foreign relations by date, region, or topic, from 1999 to the present.
Federation of American Scientists (FAS) - Browse the FAS collection of CRS reports on national security, foreign policy, and related topics.
Air University selected CRS Reports - selected reports dealing with homeland security, military, international, etc.
Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) - A searchable free collection updated weekly.
Thurgood Marshall Law Library (University of Maryland) CRS Reports - Homeland Security/Terrorism and Health Law and Policy
National Council for Science and the Environment - provides access to over 2,000 CRS Reports on environmental and related topics.
National Agricultural Law Center - CRS reports on agriculture and food issues.
Workplace documents - From Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations digital commons collection, search or browse CRS reports on workplace issues.
Franklin Pierce Law Center IP Mall - CRS reports on intellectual property, cyberlaw and electronic commerce.
First Amendment Center - provides CRS reports on first amendment topics.

Cite a CRS Report in APA

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of report in sentence case and italics (CRS Report No. xxxxxxx). Retrieved from Congressional Research Service website: URL

Example:

Erwin, M. C. (2011). Intelligence issues for Congress (CRS Report No. RL33539). Retrieved from Congressional Research Service website: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL33539.pdf

Lucy Scribner Library

Federal Resources: Legislative Branch