LibGuides: POL 2210 State Government: Federal Government Resources: General

General Government Resources

GPO Access and GPO's Federal Digital System
Through these web sites, the U.S. Government Printing Office provides search tools and access to an enormous number of federal government publications commonly used for research and reference, including the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register, the Congressional Record, the U.S. Code, and many other titles from every branch of the government. Best for locating full-text documents produced during the last decade. Easy to browse and search.
USA.gov
USA.gov is an easy-to-use search engine and directory designed to give you a centralized place to find information from all online U.S. Federal Government sources. A project of the President's Management Council, USA.gov is itself an official U.S. Government website.

U.S. Congress

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present
Easy-to-use lookup tool allows you to browse or search for biographical information about every member of Congress since 1774. Most entries include years of service, party affiliation, a short account of the member's career, and a few bibliographic references.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
The CBO is a "nonpartisan agency that produces policy analyses, cost estimates of legislation, and budget and economic projections that serve as a basis for the Congress's decisions about spending and taxes." The site features publications in areas including disaster assistance (such as consequences of Hurricane Katrina on federal receipts and outlays), environment, health, housing, homeland security, transportation, and more.
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Also includes cost information about the timing of specific analyses, and links to related sites.
Congressional Quarterly Library
These two publications provide detailed coverage of Congress and the issues it deals with. The CQ Weekly offers timely coverage of the status of bills, votes and amendments, floor and committee activity, and backroom maneuvering. The CQ Researcher focuses on in-depth analysis about current and controversial issues; each edition concentrates on a single theme. Please note that access to this database is restricted to currently enrolled students, faculty and staff.
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports - Search Engine
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the policy research arm of the U.S. Congress. With its $80 million budget and 800 employees, it issues about 3,000 briefs, reports, short issue papers and longer position papers per year. An arm of the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service is renowned for its non-partisanship and in-depth analysis, but it does not make its reports available to the public.
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However, it cannot prevent members of Congress from giving them out individually and some government agencies from posting reports they find relevant. Perhaps 1000 have become available on the web, and this search engine has been designed to assist you in locating them.
Congressional Votes Search: Search By Subject
Hosted by C-SPAN, this site allows you to track Congressional votes on current and recent legislation. Using keywords, you can search the titles and descriptions of Congressional legislation in either the House or Senate back to the Second Session of the 104th Congress (1996). Searching by month, member, or vote number is also available.
THOMAS - U.S. Congress on the Internet
A searchable, browseable database for the Federal legislature. Allows you to track the status of bills in both Houses of Congress. You can also find the full text of bills, public laws, committee reports, hearings transcripts, obtain Roll Call votes, and conduct other legislative research (e.g., search the Congressional Record).
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Most of the material in THOMAS is complete back to the 104th Congress (1995-1996), coninciding with the time the database was launched, although older material has been added to many sections back to the 93rd Congress (1973-1974) and earlier. The site also contains selected historical documents, data, and useful links.
United States House of Represenatives
The House's home page includes a current directory of members (with links to their web pages); links to Committee and Joint Committee web sites; a complete list of Roll Call Votes in the House from the Second Session of the 101st Congress (1990) to the present; a calendar and schedule of House activities; the full text of the House Rules; and links to other information.
United States Senate
The Senate's home page includes a current directory of members (with links to their web pages); the current members of all Senate Committees, Subcommittees, and Senate members of Joint Committees; a complete list of Roll Call Votes in the Senate from the 101st Congress (1989) to the present; a current calendar; the full text of the Senate Rules; and links to other information.

The President & the Executive Branch

Budget of the United States Government
This site includes the complete text of the President's budget documents, including the Economic Report of the President, the budget itself, and a variety of supporting documents, from the 1996 fiscal year to the current year.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
Originally published in print format, the Public Papers series is compiled by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. The print series (Call Number J80.A283) includes volumes covering the administrations of Presidents Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. Every volume issued since 1995, however, is now available online at this site, and more are promised.
Welcome to the White House
Official web site of the President includes biographical information, a directory of federal programs, press releases and briefings, transcripts of the President's weekly radio addresses, a database containing the full text of all Executive Orders issued by the current administration, selected federal statistics, and more.

The Supreme Court & the Federal Judiciary

Federal Judiciary Homepage
Site hosted by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts provides a good overview of the federal court system. Includes electronic documents, directories, and press releases.
Supreme Court of the United States
Official site of the U.S. Supreme Court includes the current Court schedule, court rules, recent opinions, and more.

U.S. Foreign Policy

Central Intelligence Agency Electronic Reading Room
The CIA established this site to provide the public with an overview of access to CIA information, including electronic access to previously released documents. Because of CIA's need to comply with the national security laws of the United States, some documents or parts of documents cannot be released to the public. However, a substantial amount of CIA information has been and/or can be released following review.
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The online collection includes over 2,000 documents created between 1940 and the present.
DOSFAN Electronic Research Collection
"The Electronic Research Collection (ERC) represents a partnership between the Government Printing Office through the Federal Depository Library Program, the U.S. Department of State and the Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. ...
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... The site contains historical materials from 1993 to the present providing access to official U.S. foreign policy information and decision-making. Included are country and issue specific information on sociopolitical situations, economic trends, democracy, human rights, culture, development assistance, environment, terrorism, and more. Speeches, statements, and testimony by the President, Secretary of State, and other senior department officials are featured, along with many other publications that have traditionally been provided to depository libraries, including Dispatch, Background Notes, other official publications, and congressional reports."
Electronic Briefing Books (National Security Archive)
The National Security Archive was founded in 1985 by a group of journalists and scholars who had obtained documentation from the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act and sought a centralized repository for these materials. Over the years, the Archive has assembled a large collection of declassified documents on a wide variety of topics in U.S. foreign policy: a well-chosen sample is now available through these online "briefing books".
Foreign Relations of the United States
Foreign Relations of the United States (or FRUS) is the title of a series of print volumes produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian. These volumes present the official documentary record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The Library has most of the print volumes covering the years from 1932 to the most recent years available (Call Number JX233.A3).
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A growing number of recent volumes, however, are now available online at the State Department's site; and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries have made the full text of the volumes for 1900-01 and 1903-18 available for browsing and searching as well.

Subject Guide

Gary Marks

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Subjects: Criminal Justice, Geography, Law and Legal Studies, Political Science, Sociology, Urban Studies