Guides: Political Science: Congress

Encyclopedias, Handbooks, Guides

The Oxford Handbook of the American Congress
Publication Date: 2011

CQ Guide to Congress
Provides extensive background on the history, powers, and procedures of the institution. Includes related subjects such as pressures on Congress; pay, housing, qualifications, and ethics of members; and how Congress is elected.
Encyclopedia of the United States Congress
Davis Family Library Reference JK1067 .E63 1995 (4 volumes)
Researching Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staff
CRS Report - provides more details and lists additional resources. Midd does not subscribe to all resources.
Legislative Source Book
Research guides on various legal sources from Law Librarians' Society of Washington DC (LLSDC).

Legislation & Documents

Congress.gov
Full-text ('89 to present) and summaries ('73 to present) of Bills; the Congressional Record (back to 1989); Committee reports & info; Roll call votes; House floor now & this week (shows what's currently before congress), and more. It replaces the THOMAS.gov site.

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Index with some full-text for Congressional hearings, committee prints, reports and documents. For dates of coverage, see contents coverage chart.
ProQuest Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
Legislative Insight is comprised of legislative histories -- fully searchable PDFs of full-text publications generated in the course of congressional lawmaking. Each history includes the full text of the public law itself, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports, and prints. Also included are presidential signing statements, CRS reports, and miscellaneous congressional publications that provide background material to aid in the understanding of issues related to the making of the law.

govinfo
Access online documents from all 3 branches of the Federal Government. Replaces FDSys, which was retired by the Government Publishing Office.
GovTrack.us
Track bills in Congress, voting and sponsorship records, committee activities, links to biographical information on legislators, bill statistics, and more. GovTrack.us, a project of Civic Impulse, LLC.
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
CRS is a non-partisan research service for Congress that produces highly regarded reports on legislative and policy issues at the request of Congress. In addition EveryCRSReport.com provides over 8,000 recent ones. Homeland Security Digital Library provides over 18,000 related reports. Example report: Climate Change Science: Key Points.

CQ Press This link opens in a new window
Online access to Congressional Quarterly pubications: Congress and the Nation; Historic Documents; Politics in America; and five CQ Guides: Guide to Congress; Guide to the Presidency; Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court; Guide to U.S. Elections; Guide to Political Campaigns in America.
CQ Weekly This link opens in a new window
Full-text of Congressional Quarterly Weekly Reports which follow congressional actions. Includes floor votes. 1983 to current. Part of CQ Electronic Library. Search alone or with other CQ databases such as CQ Almanac, CQ Researcher, etc. Go shortcut = go/cq

Congressional Digest: A Pro & Con Monthly
Current and Bound Periodicals JK1 .C65
Legal Information Library Subject Guide
US and international court cases, laws, and treaty resources can be found on this Middlebury library subject guide.
Congress Section - Government Documents Guide
See this section of the Middlebury Library Government Documents guide.

U.S. Historical Collections

American State Papers, 1789-1838
This digital collection contains legislative and executive documents of the first fourteen U.S. Congresses and more. It is an essential complement to the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, which begins with the 15th U.S. Congress.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980 This link opens in a new window
Contains reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from the 15th to 96th Congresses, originally published in bound volumes. Does NOT include hearings, committee prints, Congressional Record, or Annals of Congress. Also includes key Executive Branch documents and thousands of browsable/searchable Serial Set Maps. For the 1st - 14th congresses, see American State Papers. Go shortcut = go/usss

Century of Lawmaking...U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774 - 1875
Includes early congressional debates (Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, Congressional Globe, House and Senate Journals; Bills; Resolutions; Statutes at Large, and more. Includes a lot of content not in the Serial Set. (From Library of Congress American Memory Project). See Also Citation examples.

Need Debates?

Congressional Record
1994 - present via Congress.gov and 1989-1994 via the archive page. 1892 - 2009 available from the digitized print edition browse page of GovInfo. See the About page for more info and other years online. Earlier years back to 1873 are available on Hathitrust and Internet Archive. Print copies in Davis Family Library Govt Docs, X1.1/a: The official record of the proceedings and debates of the Congress in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is a verbatim record of what is said on the floor of the House and Senate along with extension of remarks, roll call votes, etc. Began in 1873. Its predecessors were the
Annals of Congress (1789-1824), the Register of Debates (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

Sources for the Congressional Record
A compilation of all sources for the Congressional Record, both free and commercial. From Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC.

Need Hearings?

Congressional Hearings available at Middlebury are included in MIDCAT (1976+) and LibrarySearch. Hearings are increasingly being digitized and included in Hathitrust archive. Recent hearings can often be found on Congressional Committee websites.

In addition, try:

Congressional Hearings on GovInfo
Govinfo contains contain select House and Senate hearings for the 104th Congress (1995-96) forward. Select hearings for previous congresses are also available.
How to Find Committee Hearings
Info from the U.S. Senate site on finding hearings.

Committee Prints, Documents, & Reports

What is the difference? These publications are described and can be searched on the collection pages provided by the U.S. Government via FDsys:

Committee Prints

Congressional Reports

Congressional Documents

These can also be found using the Serial Set (except prints) and Congress.gov.

U.S. Congress Voting Records

CQ Magazine
Full-text of Congressional Quarterly Magazine (Weekly) Reports which follow congressional actions. Includes floor votes. 1983 to current. Part of CQ Electronic Library. Search alone or with other CQ databases such as CQ Almanac, CQ Researcher, etc. Go shortcut = go/cq
GovTrack.us
Track bills in Congress, voting and sponsorship records, committee activities, links to biographical information on legislators, bill statistics, and more. GovTrack.us, a project of Civic Impulse, LLC.
Roll Call Votes
1789 - current
Voteview
Congressional data generated by researchers Howard Rosenthal and Keith Poole that is available for download including roll call, interest group ratings, party unity, etc. "This may be one of the most frequented dataset among congressional scholars."
Summary of Bills Vetoed, 1789 - present
Includes links to brief information on the bills that were vetoed by many presidents.
Measuring American Legislatures
"Aims to measure the ideology of individual state legislators and state legislatures as a whole over the past several decades." See FAQ for info on download options.

Members of Congress

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress: 1774-present
Also available in print - Davis Family Library Reference JK1010 U5.
Congressional Directory
The official directory of the U.S. Congress. Online 1997 - present. Includes short biographies, committee assignments, contact information, etc. Also includes other federal officials and agencies, DC government, independent agencies, statistics, and much more.
CQ Politics in America
Searchable directory of information on members of Congress and their districts. Includes biographical data, committee assignments, election results and key votes. Also in Print: Main Library Reference JK1012 P64. For CQ Electronic Library, Go shortcut = go/cq.
Women in Congress, 1917 - 2006
Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007
Almanac of American Politics
Includes biographical information. Searchable online through select library databases. Older issues also in print Davis Family Library JK1012 .A44.

More Resources

Congress Section - Government Documents Guide
See this section of the Middlebury Library Government Documents guide.