Legislative Materials and Government Documents

How Our Laws Are Made explains the lawmaking process in detail.
Tying it All Together is a much briefer overview of the process.

Locating Federal Legislative History in the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library

GPO Access This is a free site maintained by the US Government Printing Office containing Congressional and government materials. Search Congressional bills, Public Laws, Federal Budgets, the Congressional Record, history of bills, and other materials. Coverage starts around 1994 for most sources.

THOMAS
This project of the Library of Congress provides access to bills, committee information, Public Laws, the Congressional Record, and historical documents.

Research Guides and Pathfinders

Internet and Online Sources of U.S. Legislative and Regulatory Information (PDF only)

U.S. Congressional Bibliographies
The U.S. Congressional Bibliographies enumerate and describe meetings held by Congressional committees since 1985, those for which printed transcripts are issued, and those that remain unprinted.  Its sources are the Congressional Record's "Daily Digest" and bibliographic information supplied by the U.S. Senate Library.  Its primary goal is to be an authoritative, exhaustive reference source of meetings held and documents released by House and Senate committees.

Quick Links to House and Senate Committee Documents and Hearings

Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute
Includes the U.S. constitution, the complete U.S. Code, and CFR. The Code is the official House version. You can browse by title or perform a keyword search within a title.

Google U.S. Government Site Search
This search engine from Google! allows you to search Federal government sites (those in the .gov and .mil domains).

First Gov
A new government website promising easy, one-step access to all online U.S. Federal Government resources

Federal Government Resources at the University of Michigan Document Center
Many valuable links to access Federal Government information.

LexisNexis Congressional
Access: Only available from PCs on the UNC Campus or by proxy server with UNC ID#.
Coverage: Varies. Some files go back to 1970.
Description: Provides CIS indexing and abstracting of congressional publications and the CIS Legislative Histories (1970-present); Congressional Indexes, 1789-1969 and Indexes to Unpublished Hearings; Congressional publications, testimony, bills, etc.
Updated: Varies. Files may be updated daily, weekly, monthly, annually, or as the material becomes available.

Index to United Nations Documents and Publications
Access: Davis Library Electronic Documents computers only.
Coverage: 1961-present Updated: Monthly Description

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International Via Silverplatter
Access: Only available from PCs on the UNC Campus or by proxy server with UNC ID#.
Coverage: 1972-present
Description: Bibliographic index to the literature of public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general. Journal articles; books; government documents; statistical compilations; committee reports; directories; serials; reports of public, intergovernmental, and private organizations; and most other forms of printed literature from all over the world are indexed

Statistical Universe
Access: Only available from PCs on the UNC Campus or by proxy server with UNC ID#.
Coverage: ASI 1973-present, SRI 1980-present, IIS 1983-present
Updated: Monthly Description

An Overview of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set

Other government databases available at UNC-CH

DocLaw, a component of Washlaw, is a gateway to Federal Government internet resources and other government related
material.

United States Code: available from Cornell or GPO Access
Both of the above versions of the US Code are current as of January 16, 1996.

U.S. House of Representatives
Web sites for individual members and committee assignments.

U.S. Senate
Senators' web sites, information on committee assignments.

CRS Reports
Selected reports from the Congressional Research Service, the "nonpartisan analytical, research, and reference arm for Congress." Reports are organized by name, number, and subject. Unfortunately, they are not available in a single location. Two excellent search engines can be found at OpenCRS and at a site sponsored by the University of Texas Libraries (UNT)