Tracking Bills in Congress
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowAfter you log in to your Nexis Uni account and search, you can create an alert to monitor changes to a bill going through the legislative process. You can create these alerts from a full text bill or a bill tracking document. Once logged in you will see a bell icon at the top of the results screen
State Level Policy Research
- National Conference of State LegislaturesNCSL provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowFind state bills, laws, regulations and cases. For most states bill coverage goes back to mid-1990s.
- Open StatesSearch recent legislation and track bill progress
- State Government Information (Library of Congress)Links to state governments
- Michigan Documents can be found in Library Catalog SearchThe Hatcher Graduate Library is a depository for state of Michigan documents. You can locate these documents by using the Library Catalog Search.
Find an Association
One way to figure out what policymakers are doing in an area is to find their professional associations. Think about what level or branch of government and then search for a national association devoted to that group. Once you find the association see if you can find a resource or issues page
Another way to find association information is to use domain searching. In google, search for your keyword and then include site:[domain url]. The example below is searching for covid-19 information from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
Here are other examples of associations
Resources for comparison of state laws
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowFind state bills, laws, regulations and cases. For most states bill coverage goes back to mid-1990s.
- National Conference of State LegislaturesOpen access to all internet users.
- National Survey of State Laws2019 edition available online from HeinOnline
Comparing State Governments and Performance
- Council of State Governments Knowledge CenterData and reports from the CSG organized by policy issue
- Book of the States OnlineComparisons for states and territories with tables, charts and figures illustrating how state government operates. It also includes more than 30 articles from state leaders, innovative thinkers, noted scholars and CSG’s in-house policy experts that analyze and report on the transformations taking place in state government.
- Book of the States in hard copy in the libraryVolumes back to 1935