Research Guides: PSCI 315: Parties in American Politics: Congress

Congressional Background Information

Use these sources to:

find summaries or overviews of specific types of legislation or topic or a specific law.
identify citations to specific bills, laws or congressional publications (prints, reports, documents, hearings)

Politics in America
Contains information about members of Congress including key votes and interest group ratings; maps and descriptions of Congressional Districts and their issues; and analysis and overview of political tensions and controversies. Covers 106th - 115th Congress.
CQ Almanac
Overview of key legislation by topic. Published with each session of congress. Use the "Policy Tracker" tool to find thematic legislation by topic.
1945-2020.
CQ Magazine
Weekly coverage of congressional activity, including bill status, votes, etc.

Congressional Research Service Reports
CRS reports provide Congress with non-partisan, anticipatory and on-demand research and analysis to support their legislative, oversight, and representational duties. Reports range in length from several pages to more than one-hundred pages and cover the full breadth of topics of interest to Congress.
Congressional Publications CRS Reports
Used the advanced search to limit to CRS reports.

Congressional Publications This link opens in a new window
Publication Dates: 1789-Present
Provides U.S. congressional documents covering the full legislative process. Includes congressional debates (the Congressional Record), bills, laws, hearings, committee prints, and reports.

Federal Digital System Congressional Hearings Collection
Official hearings as published by Government Publications Office.
Congressional Publications Hearings Search
Hearings in this collection are full-text through 2010; for full-text 2011-present, search by title or committee in the library catalog.
C-SPAN
Historic and Current House and Senate Hearings on video. (Not exhaustive list, selected hearings.)

Propublica Bulk Data on Bills
This dataset contains metadata for every bill introduced, including sponsors, cosponsors, committee actions, floor votes and a summary, along with the data of the last modification to the bill. Includes historic data through 1973.