Legislative Process
How a bill becomes a law (ProQuest)
Databases
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Congress Collection This link opens in a new window
Presents biographical and voting information on all members of Congress, beginning with the 79th congress (1945) as well as summaries and analyses by the CQ staff.
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ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Explore Congress in action with the most comprehensive online resource available for congressional publications and legislative research.
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CQ Press public affairs collection This link opens in a new window
Offers reports covering major public affairs subject headings with access to primary sources, statistical and historical analyses.
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ProQuest legislative insight This link opens in a new window
Provides federal legislative histories related to enacted United States public laws.
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ProQuest regulatory insight This link opens in a new window
Provides federal administrative law histories for individual federal statutes and Executive Orders.
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CRS reports This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to all reports from 1916 to the present prepared by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress for the U.S. Congress.
Congressional Information
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The Legislative Processfrom the U.S. House of Representatives
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How Our Laws Are Madefrom the Library of Congress
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The Legislative Process - Rules & Procedurefrom the U.S. Senate
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Congressional RecordCongressional Record Bound Edition & Predecessors 1789-Present
Congressional Record Daily Edition 1985-Present
"The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings, debates, and activities of Congress. Although the Record contains a substantially verbatim account of the proceedings and debate, it also contains extensive inserted materials, communications from the President and executive agencies, memorials, and petitions."
H.R. House Bill
S. Senate Bill
H.J.Res. House Joint Resolution
S.J.Res. Senate Joint Resolution
H.Con.Res. House Concurrent Resolution
S.Con.Res. Senate Concurrent Resolution
H.Res. House Simple Resolution
S.Res. Senate Simple Resolution
Federal Statutes
Once a law is signed by the President, it is assigned a public law number and issued in print as a "slip law."
"Pub.L' is the abbreviation for "Public Law"
Ex: "105-276" is a public law number
Citation Example: Pub.L. 105-176
The Statutes at Large is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress.
At the end of each session of Congress, slip laws are compiled into bound volumes called the Statutes at Large, and they are known as "session laws." The Statutes at Large present a chronological arrangement of the laws in the exact order that they have been enacted.
A Statutes at Large citation includes the volume number, the abbreviation "stat," and the number of that particular law as assigned in the Statutes at Large.
Citation example: 112 stat 3280
"The United States Code is the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States.
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."
A U.S. Code citation includes a title number, the abbreviation "USC" or "U.S.C." and a section number.
Citation example: 31 USC 511
Regulatory Publications
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Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)from GPO's FDsys
