LibGuides: U.S. Federal Legislative Information: Background Information

Reference Tools

How a bill becomes a law (Project VoteSmart)
One of many guides to the legislative process.
Congressional Session Chart (IUB)
U.S. Congress-Year Conversion Guide
Glossary of Legislative Terms
Types of Congressional Publications (Proquest)
Detailed explanation of various types of congressional publications.

ProQuest Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
Compilations of digital full text publications created by Congress during the process leading up to the enactment of U.S. Public Laws. These include the full text of the Public Law itself, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports, and prints. Also included are Presidential signing statements, CRS reports, and miscellaneous congressional publications that provide background material.

Use these sources to:

find summaries or overviews of specific types of legislation or topic (eg recent health care legislation) or a specific law (eg USA Patriot Act)
identify citations to specific bills, laws or congressional publications (prints, reports, documents, hearings)

Congress and the Nation
Browse by congressional session or topic. Provides summaries of significant legislation and activity during each congressional session by area (eg national security, civil rights etc). Also useful for identifying legislative citations.
1945 - 2008.
CQ Almanac
Annual overview of key legislation by topic. Use the Policy Tracker to find legislation by topic for several years. Example: Amtrak
Includes brief legislative histories.
1945-
CQ Weekly
Provides detailed coverage of status of bills, votes and amendments, floor and committee activity, and backroom maneuvering. Earlier issues in print.
1983-

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Includes Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports from 1916-present. CRS reports are an excellent resource for providing background information and explanations about issues and legislation.