InfoGuides: Researching Congress, Federal Agencies &amp; Virginia Legislation: Research a Law or Bill

Key Resources for Legislative Research

Subscription resources (paid for by organizations, not individuals!)

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
I call this "google for Congress". User-friendly search engine for most documents produced in the legislative process. Includes a quick look-up tool for most common citations.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Classic repository for legal research, comparable to JSTOR because it (a) includes historical legal documents and (b) is image-based.

Freely available resources

Congress.gov This link opens in a new window
Legislative information. Particularly good for info on specific bills. From the Library of Congress. (This resource replaces THOMAS.)

govinfo
Access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. From the Government Publishing Office. (Beta release, will eventualy replace FDsys)

Common tasks in Legislative Research

Find a law in the U.S. Code

U.S. Code in govinfo
Typically you will refer to the most recent edition of the U.S. Code, but govinfo provides access to 1994-present.
U.S. Code in Cornell's Legal Information Institute
A particularly searchable site.

Look up the History of a Bill

When was a Bill introduced? By whom? What amendments were introduced?

Congress.gov (1973-present) Use this interactive tutorial (created for a class, so ignore class-specific tips).
HeinOnline (1873-a few years ago) History of Bills (In the index to the Congressional Record)
- HeinOnline History of Bills will give you the action and the page in the Congressional Record
- Use this interactive tutorial to locate your Bill's entry in the History of Bills.
- IMPORTANT: If the actions in a History of Bills entry don't go from a Bill's introduction to its passage, check the other session of the relevant congress for the rest of the actions.

Locate debates, etc., in the Congressional Record

Suppose you want to research the debates on the House floor. The Congressional Record offers a "substantially verbatim" account of each day's proceedings.

(N.B. The official records of the House & the Senate are their respective journals)

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Browse or search the Congressional Record, with clear distinctions between bound & daily editions. This interactive tutorial (developed for a class exercise) may be helpful.
Congress.gov This link opens in a new window
Browse or search the Congressional Record 1995-present.

Conversions

From popular name of law to United States Code citation

If you have the name of the law that created your agency, look up the name in the Cornell Legal Information Institute Table of Popular Names. The US Code citation will be provided.

From year to Congress/session

Use this chart from the U.S. Senate when you have the year but not the Congress number, or vice versa -- or when you just need to know the exact dates of a session.