LibGuides: Legal Research: Legislative Branch

Finding Bills and Other Congressional Documents

A Bill is introduced to the Senate or House and creates new laws, repeals old ones, or amends existing laws. Concurrent bills of the same legislation can be introduced to both Chambers. To obtain a copy of a Bill, go to

The Library of Congress (Thomas). This is also where you can find Slip Laws, which is how the bill is sent to the President.
GPO Congressional Bills
Contact your Congressperson or Senator.

A Congressional Document is a publication of the Full Chamber containing special reports from executive agencies, presidential messages, etc. They can be found at GPO Access and Congressional Universe.

Records of Committee Actions include:

Reports, which are publications detailing a committee's discussion and recommendations on a particular bill.
Hearings contain the trainscript of committee testimony such as witnesses' oral and written statements, question and answer sessions, and related reports and exhibits.
Prints are general publications that may contain draft legislation, historical information about a topic, statistics, or situation reports.
These are also available at the Library of Congress (Thomas) and Congressional Universe.

Floor Actions are transcripts of remarks from the floor of either Chamber. Any member of Congress may "re-do" their remarks for final versions. These can be found at GPO Access , Thomas and Congressional Universe.

Finding Federal Statutes

U.S. Statutes at Large, 1789-1875
From the American Memory Library of Congress website. Includes volumes 1 - 18.
U.S. Statutes at Large 1951-2011
The United States Statutes at Large, typically referred to as the Statutes at Large, is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress. The Statutes at Large is prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
U.S. Statutes at Large (UNT Digital Library)
Organized by decade and searchable. Select the desired volume and then choose "Read this legislative document."

Finding Current Laws by Topic

Federal laws currently in effect are found in the U.S. Code., arranged by topic. The Code is only updated every six years, so for more updated information see Lexis Nexis Academic. These will include any cases associated with a statute.

U.S. Code
The United States Code is the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is divided by broad subjects into 53 titles and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives. The U.S. Code was first published in 1926. The next main edition was published in 1934, and subsequent main editions have been published every six years since 1934. In between editions, annual cumulative supplements are published in order to present the most current information.

Legal Research

Finding Bills and Other Congressional Documents

Finding Federal Statutes

Finding Current Laws by Topic

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