Library Guides: POLI SCI 109B: The Politics of Public Policy: Find Legislation (Federal)

Congressional Information

Use the below sources to help discover legislation and get an overview of the context in which it was enacted.

CQ Almanac This link opens in a new window
Coverage and analysis of United States Congressional legislation from 1945 to 2016. (Congressional Quarterly Almanac)
Building on the reporting and analysis done throughout the year by CQ's news staff, the Almanac offers original narrative accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a congressional session. Arranged thematically, CQ Almanac organizes, distills, and cross-indexes the full year in Congress and in national politics. Its clear and concise language makes the Almanac an essential resource for scholars, journalists, interested citizens, and students of the U.S. legislative system.

Use the below databases to obtain digital copies of congressional documents.

ProQuest Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
Contains legislative histories and links to the related full-text Congressional documents of more than 18,000 federal laws enacted since 1929. The searchable PDFs include text of the law, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, and committee hearings, reports, and prints.
"Provides access to more than 18,000 professionally researched legislative histories of US Law. Histories include the Public Law itself, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports and prints, Presidential signing statements, and CRS reports. 1929-present"
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Indexing and full-text access for publications of the United States Congress such as hearings, committee reports and prints, CRS reports, as well as executive branch documents. (Congressional Publications) [dates vary]
One stop shopping for all U.S. congressional publications. Provides indexing and abstracts of congressional publications back to 1789, including the full-text of published Congressional Hearings (1824-present; unpublished hearings until 1979), Committee Prints (1817-present), Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports (1916-present), Congressional Record and its predecessor titles (1789-present), U.S. Congressional Serial Set and Maps (1789-present), Executive Branch Documents (1789-1932), Presidential Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations (1789-present), and Legislative Histories (1969-Present; earlier legislative histories are available via ProQuest's Legislative Insight).

Congressional Members

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Indexing and full-text access for publications of the United States Congress such as hearings, committee reports and prints, CRS reports, as well as executive branch documents. (Congressional Publications) [dates vary]
One stop shopping for all U.S. congressional publications. Provides indexing and abstracts of congressional publications back to 1789, including the full-text of published Congressional Hearings (1824-present; unpublished hearings until 1979), Committee Prints (1817-present), Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports (1916-present), Congressional Record and its predecessor titles (1789-present), U.S. Congressional Serial Set and Maps (1789-present), Executive Branch Documents (1789-1932), Presidential Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations (1789-present), and Legislative Histories (1969-Present; earlier legislative histories are available via ProQuest's Legislative Insight).
Quorum
Track current and recent legislation in the U.S. Congress. Allows users to see how congressional members work together, and see an archive of member's social media. See the more link for additional information.
Quorum allows you to track legislators social media posts, who legislators work with and on what topics/issues. It can also alert you when legislation moves forward. Quorum is available to Berkeley students, faculty and staff, and requires users to create a free account using their berkeley.edu email address. Browser ad blockers can interfere with access. If you experience this, open the site using an incognito window in Chrome.

Biographical Directory of Congress
Find basic biographic information on past and current congressional members

Tracking U.S. Congressional Bills

Tracking a bill through Congress can be exciting. The following links will allow you to track current bills, though there are many other similar sites and tools on the internet.

Congress.gov -- Official Congressional site. Sign up for a free account, then search for the bill(s) you are interested in.
GovTrack.us -- Sign up for a free account, then search for the bill(s) you are interested in
Opencongress.org -- Sign up for a free account, then search for the bill(s) you are interested in.

ProQuest Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
Contains legislative histories and links to the related full-text Congressional documents of more than 18,000 federal laws enacted since 1929. The searchable PDFs include text of the law, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, and committee hearings, reports, and prints.
"Provides access to more than 18,000 professionally researched legislative histories of US Law. Histories include the Public Law itself, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports and prints, Presidential signing statements, and CRS reports. 1929-present"

Background and Context

Trying to figure out what was influencing Congress is a goal of many researchers. The following databases will allow you to search for articles and books that will provide background and context into Congressional actions and proceedings. For current issues, another good source to check are the major newspapers (Washington Post, NYT, etc). Also consider following groups on issues you are interested in--many of these will put out statements on about/for/against legislation.

CQ Magazine This link opens in a new window
In-depth reports on congressional issues, plus a wrapup of the previous weekâ€™s news, including bill status, committee and floor activity, debates, and all roll-call votes.
Provides nonpartisan information about US government and congressional affairs and subjects of concern. This online version also provides access to some articles prior to when they appear in the print version of CQ Weekly. Part of the CQ Electronic Library collection.
National Journal Group's Policy Central This link opens in a new window
The National Journal and its associated publications provide a comprehensive view of current politics and policy at the federal level in the United States.
Indexes National Journal, The Hotline which tracks American politics and campaigns with coverage of each day's events, Congress Daily, Technology Daily, Almanac of American Politics, Poll Track and others to provide a comprehensive resource on politics and policy.
CQ Congress and the Nation This link opens in a new window
Reference guide providing comprehensive coverage of Congressional action from 1945 to 2004 including in-depth review and analysis of legislation and policy during each Congressional session and presidential term, organized by policy area.
Provides detailed coverage of the events, trends, and controversies of the US Congress and Presidency from 1945 to 2004. Includes analysis of bills that passed/did not pass Congress, historical context for legislation, and brief histories of key legislation. Part of the CQ Electronic Library collection.
Access World News This link opens in a new window
Full-text information and perspectives from U.S. and international news sources. (America's newspapers - NewsBank - global newsbank)
Provides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources. Offers strong regional coverage, indexing more than California newspapers such as Contra Costa Times (1995-current), Sacramento Bee (1984-current), San Francisco Chronicle (1985-current), and San Jose Mercury News (1985-current). Search categories include: California newspapers (121 titles), Greater Los Angeles (54 titles), major metropolitan titles (13 titles), Spanish-language news sources (48 titles), the World (almost 2000 titles), US (855 titles).
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes books, journals, and dissertations within the field of political science and related to comparative politics, developing nations, history and theory of political science, political psychology, political economy, public administration, and public policy. [1975 - present]
International in scope.

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POLI SCI 109B: The Politics of Public Policy: Find Legislation (Federal)

Congressional Information

Congressional Members

Tracking U.S. Congressional Bills

Background and Context