Loyola Law Library

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U.S. Congress -Directories and Information

Official Congressional Directory. Washington, D.C.: U.S.G.P.O.,

This directory lists addresses, phone numbers and biographical information for members of Congress, Congressional committees and Executive departments [REF JK 1011]

Congressional Yellow Book. Washington, DC: Monitor Publishing Co.,

This is a quarterly who's who in Congress, including committees and key staff. It includes information by Congressional District, and District Maps.
[REF JK 1083 .B55]

Encyclopedia of Associations. Deborah M. Burek. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Inc.

A guide to national and international organizations, including commercial, legal, governmental, military, public administration, health, educational, chambers of commerce, tourism and others. [REF AS 22 .E5]

Federal Regulatory Directory. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly

This directory provides easy-to-use information for the user who must work with federal agencies. Current issues about regulation and administrative agency procedures are given, with descriptions of the 13 largest agencies.
[REF KF 5407 .F4]

 Internet Resource to Agencies: LSU Federal Agency Directory

Official statistical Information produced by federal agencies: Fedstats

Federal Staff Directory. Ed. Ann L. Brownson. Mt. Vernon, VA: Staff Directories, Ltd.

Entries list contact information for Executive branch offices, Departments, Agencies, and Advisory Organizations. Also includes biographical information for key executives. Indexes by individual and subject. [REF JK 661 .F4]

The United States Government Manual Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O.,

Agencies of the legislative, judicial and executive branches are covered, as well as boards, committees, and commissions. Summaries of agency's purposes are given, with consumer and public interest information. [REF JK 421 .A3]

Washington Information Directory. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly

Information concerning the federal government is given, along with descriptions of private, nonprofit organizations in Washington. [REF F 192.3 .W33]

The U.S. House of Representatives has a comprehensive web site, and serves as a directory for members, committees, and leadership. It gives schedules and votes and describes legislative process.
The U.S. Senate site gives similar information, along with Senate history, procedures and terminology.
 

Research Aids: Print and Online Sources:

Enacted laws, bills, the Congressional Record, Judicial opinions (for discussions of legislation by judges interpreting statutes).

Newspaper and magazine articles are often good sources for legislative sponsors of bills or news of Congressional reports.

How a Bill becomes Law

Congressional Research Tutorial -UC Berkeley

Findlaw - Legal Subjects
FirstGov.gov
Federal Web Locator
 

 Legislation Information: Tracking pending Legislation; Documents

CCH Congressional Index. Chicago, IL: Commerce Clearing House.

A looseleaf service, it lists, summarizes and indexes public bills. Weekly supplements are issued while Congress is in session. Two volumes for each Congress, Senate and House, contain a list of bills passed, histories with hearing dates for all bills introduced. Includes a detailed subject index, and one by the principal legislative sponsor or author of the bill. [REF KF 49 .C6]

 Online Sources:

CIS Congressional Universe-Loyola Online Catalog: Library access only

Under "Bills, Regulations and Laws": Bills since 1989
Summary of the pending bill given, along with citations to committee and conference reports;dates for floor debates, amendments,  bill enacted.

GPO Access the U.S. Government Printing office web site; from 1993

Bills from 1993; Calendars of House of Representatives and legislative history of bills since 1996.

Thomas a service of the Library of Congress and important legislation web site.

Gives information about pending bills since 1994, with amendments, committee and conference reports, debates, enactment of bill. Gives related bill information.

LEXIS - Legis Library;  BLTRCK; BLTXT

WESTLAW - US-BLTRCK: CONG-BILLTXT

Congressional Record. Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O.: GPO ACCESS - from 1994

This publication is most valuable as a source for Congressional debates, the full text of presidential messages or committee reports. The Daily Digest section summarizes action taken within committees and legislation. At the end of the Session a complete status table called "History of Bills and Resolutions" is published, with access by subject, sponsor and bill number.

United States House and Senate Bills. Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O.

The Government Printing Office makes these available in microfiche and through the Internet on the GPO Access and Thomas, and LEXIS and WESTLAW databases. [Micro KF 16 .C62 96th Congress - present]

United States Statutes At Large. (Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O.).

This is a chronological listing of enacted public laws, from 1789. [KF 50 .U5]

United States Code. (USC). Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O..

This is the codified version of the laws currently in force. It is the official subject arrangement of the United States Statutes At Large. [REF KF 62 .U55]

United States Code Annotated. (USCA). (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.).

This is a commercial publication of the U.S. Code. It includes some history of legislation and citations to other related material. It is updated by pocket parts. [REF KF 62.5 .U5 and stacks] It is also on WESTLAW.

Legislative Histories:

United States Code, Congressional and Administrative News. (USCCAN). (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.).

This publication prints the text of enacted public laws, from 1941, some presidential messages and selected Congressional committee reports on important acts. It is updated each Congressional session with bi-weekly advance sheets. The legislative history table for each public law includes all information. [KF 48 .W45]

WESTLAW contains committee reports from USCCAN in its Legislative History database, and also has a Congressional testimony database, from hearings which have not yet been published by the Government Printing Office.

CIS/Index. Washington, DC: Congressional Information Service.

An index to publications of the U.S. Congress, it is divided into three parts: Abstracts give summaries of the documents with information for finding it. The legislative history volume, organized by Public Law number, lists and summarizes all documents relating to the act. The index volume is by subject and name. [REF KF 49 .C62]
CIS Congressional Universe-Loyola Online Catalog

LEXIS includes all legislative histories from the CIS/Index from 1970
to the present. It also includes some full-text legislative histories in specialty libraries such as the Federal Tax Library and the Securities Library.

United States Congressional Serial Set. (Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O.).

This set consists of the bound House Reports, House Documents, Senate Reports, Senate Documents and Senate Treaty Documents. [Range 324]
Thomas.
GPO Access, from 104^th Congress.
CIS Congressional Universe - Loyola Online Catalog

Primary Administrative Materials

Federal Register. Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O.

Published every business day, this is the first official source for proposed and final federal regulations, and informational notices regarding regulatory matters. It also contains the text of presidential documents and executive orders.
[KF 70 .A2 and Micro KF 70 .A2
HeinOnline  - from 1936
GPO ACCESS - since 1994
Lexis and Westlaw since 1980

Code of Federal Regulations. CFR). Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O..

The final versions of rules and regulations, all presidential documents and executive orders are arranged by subject. Divided into fifty titles, each representing a broad subject area, the CFR is further subdivided into chapters , parts, and sections. Individual titles are revised once a calendar year and issued on a staggered basis. [KF 70 .A3 and MICRO KF 70 .A3],
LSA, List of CFR Sections Affected.  KF 70 .A3
Lexis and Westlaw
HeinOnline- from 1938
GPO ACCESS  - from 1996