WU Libraries Government, Etc.: Legislative Process

Subject librarian: Barbara Rehkop
Office Hours: By Appointment
Email: brehkop@wustl.edu
Phone: 314/935-7465
Fax: 314/935-4919

Link to Main Government page 

Washington University in St. Louis is a Federal Depository Library

Topics on this Page:

EXPLANATORY GUIDES

Legislative Histories
A PowerPoint presentation on the basics of doing a legislative history.

Schoolhouse Rock: I'm Just A Bill
Lyrics and sound from the popular PBS program.

"Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids: How Laws Are Made"
A simple and graphical discussion of the federal government in general and the law-making process in particular. The site particularly emphasizes the use of GPO Access to find legislative information.

"Congressional Research Service Reports: Federal Statutes, What They Are and Where to Find Them"
CRS produces many fine and insightful reports for members of Congress, some of which are kindly made available through the National Council for Science and the Environment. This particular report discusses both electronic and print resources (2001).

"How Our Laws Are Made"
Revised and Updated by Charles W. Johnson, Parliamentarian, U.S. House of Representatives, June 2003. Detailed examination of the U.S. legislative process, House version.

"Enactment of a Law"
By Robert B. Dove, Parliamentarian, U.S. Senate. Updated February 1997. Detailed examination of the U.S. legislative process, Senate version.

Federal Legislative History Research: A Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent
By the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. Advanced and sophisticated, not for the beginner.

An Overview of the Congressional Record and Its Predecessor Publications
Also provided through the Law Librarian's Society of Washington D.C.

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GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
(Researching a Legislative History)

THOMAS--Legislative Information on the Internet (Sponsored by the Library of Congress)
Thomas allows searching for keywords, bill numbers, subjects, sponsors, etc. It includes congressional reports, bill summaries and status, and allows one to search the Congressional Record (transcript of Congressional activity).

Legislative Branch Resources on GPO Access
Like Thomas, GPO Access provides access to laws, bills, summaries, status, the Congressional Record, etc.

LexisNexis Congressional
Full-text. U.S. legislative information, including full-text of bills and laws.

Washington University School of Law: Guide to Legal Research on the Web
'This page provides a quick introduction to Internet tools that are useful to the legal researcher. It includes both Web-access databases that are limited to the use of the Washington University School of Law Community as well as public access information available to anyone using the Web for research. It does not attempt to duplicate the effort of the many sites that are striving to provide comprehensive links to publicly available legal information on the Web. Instead, we point the legal researcher to some of the best unlimited access resources that we have found on the Web.'

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TRACKING CURRENT LEGISLATION

Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources
A .pdf document, provided by the Congressional Research Service. [2/05].

GPO Access' Congressional Bills
'GPO Access contains all published versions of bills from the 103rd (1993-1994) Congress forward. The 108th Congress database is updated by 6 a.m. (EST) daily when bills are published and approved for release. The documents in these databases are available as ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.'

GPO Access' Congressional Record
'The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. GPO Access contains Congressional Record volumes from 140 (1994) to the present. At the back of each daily issue is the "Daily Digest," which summarizes the day's floor and committee activities. The current year's Congressional Record database is usually updated daily by 11 a.m., except when a late adjournment delays production of the issue. Documents are available as ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.'

GPO Access' History of Bills
'The History of Bills lists legislative actions on bills that are reported in the Congressional Record. It is part of the print Congressional Record Index, which is published biweekly by the Joint Committee on Printing when Congress is in session, but is maintained as a separate application on GPO Access.'

GPO Access' Public and Private Laws
'Public and private laws are prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). GPO Access contains the text of public and private laws enacted from the 104th Congress to the present. The database for the current session of Congress is updated when the publication of a slip law is authorized by OFR. Documents are available as ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.'

GPO Access' United States Code
'The United States Code is the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is divided by broad subjects into 50 titles and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 1926, the United States Code has been published every six years. In between editions, annual cumulative supplements are published in order to present the most current information. Documents are available only as ASCII text files.'

LLSDC's Legislative Sourcebook
Presented by the Law Librarians Society of Washington D.C., this website contains a wealth of information which will be of interest to those preparing legislative histories.

United States Statutes and the United States Code: Historical Outlines, Notes, Lists, Tables, and Sources
Compiled by the Law Librarians Society of Washington D.C. 'The Website contains four handouts (in PDF with enhancements) from a November 9, 2004, program sponsored by the Society's Legislative Research Special Interest Section, which detail the history and development of the U.S. Statutes at Large and the U.S. Code with explanatory notes, listing of content, discussion of U.S. Code notes, prima facie and positive law and other matters rarely found on the web. Also for the first time on the web are optically scanned PDF copies of the six tables of the United States Code, 2000 edition. Finally there are links, with notes on content, to most all the known electronic sources of the U.S. Statutes and the U.S. Code.'

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