Starting your Research - Congress - Research & Technology Guides at University of Michigan Library

Best Bets for Researching Congress and Legislation

ProQuest Congressional
ProQuest Congressional (previously called LexisNexis Congressional) indexes and abstracts Congressional committee publications, including hearings, committee prints, reports, documents, and public laws. It includes the full text of reports and documents (1789-1969), hearings (1824-), Congressional Record (1985-1997), CRS Reports (1916-present), Statutes at Large (1789-), bill text (1989-) and Federal Register (1980-) as well as the Serial Set (1789-), the current U.S. Code and the Code of Federal Regulations.
Legislative Histories (ProQuest Congressional) 1969 to present
Legislative Histories bring together relevant information that documents a bill's journey to become a law
Thomas
The Library of Congress portal for legislative information. Thomas has the text of bills and public laws going back to 93rd (1973); House and Senate roll call votes back to 101st congress (1989); Congressional Record back to 101st (1989).
Congress.gov
Information portal from the Library of Congress. Brings together information on members of Congress and legislation

Hearings-used to gather information, explore the need for legislation, or for oversight	ProQuest Congressional (UM only) FDSyS-hearings back to 1985
Bills and Amendments-legislation introduced by a member of Congress
Committee Prints-publications used by committees during the consideration of a bill. Often written by the Congressional Research Service	ProQuest Congressional
Bill Markup Reports-document the changes made to a bill while in Committee	National Journal covers recent markup sessions for the House and Senate
House and Senate Committee Reports- Reports of congressional committees concerning proposed legislation and/or contain findings on matters under investigation	ProQuest Congressional FDSys
Senate Executive Reports- Reports of the Committee on Foreign Relations relating to treaties between the United States and foreign nations which have been submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification, or are reports of various Senate committees regarding nomination of individuals.	ProQuest Congressional FDSys
Floor Debate see Congressional Record
House and Senate Documents- Documents can include reports of executive departments and agencies, as well as committee prints, that were ordered to be printed as documents. Senate Treaty Documents contain the text of a treaty as it is submitted to the U. S. Senate for ratification by the President of the United States.	ProQuest Congressional FDSys Serial Set for pre-1970 documents