Chapter 1 : Search: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation Statement of Congressional documents, journals, registers of debates, etc: and catalogue of part of the other books for sale by George Templeman at the Commission Book & Stationary Store, opposite Bernard's Mansion Hotel, Penn. Avenue, Washington, D.C. Links Basic Citation Form The point of a citation is to help your reader locate the exact document you are using. Include the following, as best you can, but always ask yourself if you would be able to lay hands on the document again using only the citation. If not, you may need to add more information and alter the form. Here is an example: Government Printing Office, February United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin no. You may be used to getting this information from a title page and its verso. But with government documents, you may need to look all over the document: Note that the country and issuing agency are listed first, not the author. The only exceptions are when you are citing a technical report or a part of a publication. See Garner and Cheney for more guidance on these exceptions. Federal documents, the "Government Printing Office" is not, strictly speaking, a publisher. It prints what it is told to and the distribution of the materials is the responsibility of whatever agency ordered them printed. For our purposes, however, it will satisfy for "publisher" where it is mentioned. Just remember that not all Federal documents will come out of the GPO and to be on the lookout for other publication data. In the "Notes" section, you can put anything that will help your reader find the document. This could be anything from a Superintendent of Documents SuDoc number as we have done in our example to a map scale to a Serial Set volume number. For a list of potential note information, see Garner and Cheney. Non-Print Considerations Increasingly, government documents are available in electronic formats sometimes, only in electronic formats. Many government documents are still most easily accessed through microforms. Here are some examples of non-print resources. Website no print equivalent This category includes only resources that are original to the Internet; they were never printed in a paper format and so may not have "publisher" or "page" information. The simplest way to cite these resources is to simply add the URL in the place of the publisher information and add the date you accessed the resource. If you must add a line break to a URL, do it a slash. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Tenants Rights in Indiana. Database Many print documents are available through databases. Some databases, like Congress. Some documents can be found in both. Where possible, cite the freely accessible database by adding the URL and access date to the end of the citation. When you cite a subscriber database, you should not include the URL in a citation to one, but you should include the name of the database and enough information to find the resource within that database. Freely Available Database Sen. Subscription Database Cited item U. Microforms Information for your citation should come from the document itself whenever possible, not the external sources like header on the microfiche or film box markings. You can use external sources only when the information cannot be found in the document. They are often laden with typos. Microforms not part of Collections Simply put the format in parentheses after the title. Aircraft Storage Batteries Technical Note no. Executive Branch Documents, LexisNexis Academic and Library Solutions, Add the format in parentheses after the title. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Regional Economic Measurement Division. Next, we will explore the best ways to cite specific kinds of government documents. Table of Contents United States Congressional Documents If you want to keep your congressional documents together in an alphabetical list, you may use "U. The only time you must use "Congress" is when your document came from a Joint Committee, as in our second example below. Bills and Acts The issuing agency is always either the House or the Senate. Government Printing Office, year. Always use the bill number in the title. Washington, Government Printing Office, Committee Prints Committee prints are the working papers and reports of committees. The Senate has an official numbering system for them since, but the House does not. Page 1
Chapter 2 : Guide: Citing U.S. Government Publications Indiana University Libraries Statement of Congressional documents, journals, registers of debates, etc: And catalogue of part of the other books for sale by George Templeman, at the. PDFs of reports related to selected public laws ; LH database: For most laws, either a Senate or a House report and the conference report if there is one are reprinted. The predecessor to the serial set, the American State Papers, contains selected committee reports from and may be searched electronically at the American Memory Project. The American State Papers are also available through the U. Remarks made by the sponsor of the legislation or the chairperson of the committee that considered it tend to carry more authority than the opinions of members at large. Congressional Record Since, congressional debates have been published in the Congressional Record, which appears first on a daily basis, then is recompiled into annual bound volumes at the end of each session of Congress known as the "permanent," or "bound" edition. There are separate Bluebook citation formats Rule Congressional Documents library has also digitized the bound Congressional Record - present ; the daily edition is also available here from - present. Hein has also developed a search tool which converts daily edition citations to bound edition citations currently available back to NOTE that Lexis and Westlaw do not revise these daily page numbers once the permanent edition is published; although the Bluebook requires citation to the permanent edition, these databases contain only the pagination for the daily edition. When using a print, microfiche or PDF copy of the Record, the best source for locating the text of debates on the floor of Congress is the "History of Bills and Resolutions" table for each annual volume of the Congressional Record. It is necessary to know the number of the bill that was enacted, but the annual table provides page citations to the voluminous text of each Congressional Record. References to dates of consideration for each bill can be found in the Digest of Public General Bills and Resolutions, USCCAN, CIS and the Statutes at Large, but because those references are published before the daily edition of the Record has been compiled into the permanent bound edition, they include no page numbers. Pre Sources The publication known today as the Congressional Record has undergone a number of title changes in American history. Committee Hearings Statements made in testimony before the committee considering the proposed legislation or by committee members have been accepted by courts as evidence of legislative intent. Their usefulness is limited by the large amount of testimony, both pro and con, on many bills and the difficulty in establishing a connection between particular remarks made at the hearing and the final language of the bill. Hearings are not held on all pieces of federal legislation, and not every hearing is published. Unpublished hearings are sent to the National Archives, and remain under seal for years, depending upon the chamber which originally held the hearing and the sensitivity of its content. In addition, even hearings which are selected for official publication may be delayed due to the lack of a mandatory printing schedule for congressional committees; the amount of time between the hearing and its official publication can vary widely, from a few weeks to several years. The best source for accessing congressional hearings online at Duke University is ProQuest Congressional, which provides PDFs of selected hearings from - present as part of its digital collection. The full text of selected hearings is also available for free through GovInfo from - present. Hearings related to U. Supreme Court nominations are also available back to on GovInfo. Individual congressional committee websites also often make the full text of their hearings available often with video ; however, their archives generally do not predate what is available through GovInfo. Congressional Documents Library includes thousands of hearings from the 50th Congress to the present. Additional information about hearings is provided by the following historical print indexes: Dating back to the 23d Congress in, the Index provides subject access, descriptive information on the hearing, and most importantly for legislative history purposes an index by bill number, that brings together citations for available hearings on each bill. The basic index for hearings and most other government documents has historically been the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, which began publication in, and is available in the Law Library at Documents GP 3. Federal Agency Page 2
Documents, Decisions, and Appeals library. Along with detailed bibliographic information about each published hearing, the Monthly Catalog includes its Superintendent of Documents SuDocs classification number, which determines its physical location in most documents libraries. Hearings of both houses are also indexed in the U. The original volumes cover hearings in the Senate Library published before ; later supplements cover up to Each provides access by subject, committee name and bill number. This index does not provide Superintendent of Documents classification numbers for the hearings, but indicates the bound volume where they can be found in the Senate Library. However, the indexes do allow the researcher to verify whether or not a hearing has been published for a particular bill and simplify locating its SuDocs number in the Monthly Catalog. Pre hearings not held in the Senate Library are indexed in Harold O. Bills Frequently, before the final version of a bill is reported to the floor, a committee will consider alternative versions or proposed amendments. Comparing the enacted language with that found in earlier versions of the bill, or in amendments that were not accepted, can better illustrate the intent of the final version. Comprehensive historical collections are available at the Library of Congress and in the offices of each house, but at few locations outside of Washington, D. However, bill texts have become increasingly available online, at least for more recent Congresses. Lexis Advance offers the full text of bills dating back to the st Congress - present. Bloomberg Law includes federal bills back to The Library of Congress has also digitized selected historical bills and resolutions through its American Memory Project. House materials are available from the 6th - 42nd Congress ; Senate materials from the 16th - 42nd Congress Note that this archive is not comprehensive. In addition to the sources listed above, it is sometimes possible to locate the bill text reprinted in published hearings, committee reports, or the Congressional Record. Other Publications Other congressional documents, although not usually related to particular bills, may provide useful background for legislative history research. Committee Prints Many committee studies and reports are published under the general classification: Committee prints are also freely available back to via GovInfo. Individual committees may also make them available on their websites. Congressional Committee Prints Index Ref. Although not widely distributed in hard copy, the prints are available in microfiche in the basic CIS collection - present and in U. Z7C66, that includes indexes by subject, title, committee and congress, SuDocs number and bill number. Congressional Research Service CRS Reports Many congressional committee studies are prepared by the Congressional Research Service CRS, an office of Congress which prepares nonpartisan research reports meant to help members of Congress understand public policy issues. For example, see the report Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staff. For many years, CRS was unable to provide the full text of these reports directly to the public, although citizens could request copies through the office of their congressperson. Beginning in, Congress lifted the prohibition on public access to CRS reports, making them freely available through Congress. The Library of Congress is adding new reports to this site, with plans to also upload a complete collection of retrospective reports by spring The site features a number of search options for locating CRS reports on a topic. In addition, a number of organizations have created free online archives of selected reports. The most comprehensive is through the University of North Texas Libraries, which attempts to compile available reports dating back to Its "Related Resources" page links to a number of other subject-based CRS report libraries, on topics such as the environment, national security, and foreign policy. Other Sources of Information Although there is much current journal literature on the uses of legislative history in statutory interpretation, there is no useful current bibliography. The standard American treatise on statutory interpretation is the multi-volume treatise by Singer, Statutes and Statutory Construction, 7th ed. This treatise provides only a limited treatment of legislative history problems, although a small bibliography is included in volume 4. Compilation and uses of legislative histories are covered in general texts on legal research, such as Fundamentals of Legal Research, 10th ed. P65 and Federal Legal Research, 2d ed. Historical federal legislative history texts, while obviously outdated with regard to new publications and electronic resources, may be a good introduction to the documents of legislative history and research techniques for early laws, and can be found in the Duke University Libraries catalog with a subject heading Page 3
search for "Legislative histories -- United States. Page 4
Chapter 3 : Congressional - Government Information - Research Guides at Colorado State University Fort C Statement of Congressional documents, journals, registers of debates, etc. and catalogue of part of the other books for sale by George Templeman, at the Commission Book & Stationary Store, opposite Bernard's Mansion Hotel. Congressional committees prepare reports based on proposed legislation and issues under investigation. Available online from to present http: House Resolutions are formal written motions adopted by the House. Hearings may also be purely exploratory in nature, providing testimony and data about topics of current interest. Deschler identifies precedents and practices of the House of Representatives. Available online From to present http: The United States Statutes at large, commonly know as the Statutes at Large, is currently published by the Government Printing Office and is considered the official source for laws passed by Congress. Available online From â http: N, published by West Group, contains public law, Presidential proclamations, and executive orders. N is not considered the official source of legislation. The United States Code is considered the official source of laws arranged by subject matter published by the Office of the Law Revision Council. The House is not directly involved with the approval or disapproval of treaties. A treaty may remain open at the end of a Congress and be considered in a future Congress. The publication is available when Congress is in session and on Mondays during recess. Roll Call covers Congressional elections in every state and news of the legislative and political maneuvers on Capitol Hill. Available online, a subscription basis http: The Hill profiles lawmakers and aides including Senators, House members. National Journal Group Inc. Bill Status Reports, to track key legislation; Daybook, a guide to political and policy events; and Earlybird, an early-morning news update on national news, campaigns, and the House and Senate floor agendas. Available online, a subscription basis www. The publication also provides detailed state and district information plus a wealth of information on campaign finance, partisan caucuses, and standing committees. Chapter 4 : Government Information Statement of Congressional documents, journals, registers of debates, etc. and catalogue of part of the other Catalog Record - Electronic Resource Available Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site. Chapter 5 : Databases - Libraries - Western Illinois University The Register of Debates is a record of the congressional debates of the 18th Congress, 2nd Session through the 25th Congress, 1st Session (). It is the second of four publications containing the debates of Congress. Chapter 6 : Congressional Globe Links: U.S. Congressional Documents The Publication Manual of the APA does not specifically address citing the Congressional Record. For materials not covered in the Publication Manual, the APA refers users to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Chapter 7 : Congressional Record - Wikipedia 6. Debates. The daily debates of Congress are issued as the Congressional Record (the earlier titles of this series are noted below). It is a substantially verbatim account of remarks made during the proceedings of the House and Senate, subject only to technical, grammatical, and typographical corrections. Chapter 8 : How do I refine a search in the U.S. Congressional Documents? HeinOnline Knowledge Base Page 5
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates American Memory. Library of Congress. "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation consists of a linked set of published congressional records of the United States of America from the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress, Chapter 9 : Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives Library - Library Collection Congressional Record, Annals of Congress, Register of Debates in Congress, and Congressional Globe When possible, the permanent (bound) edition of the Congressional Record should be cited rather than the daily (unbound). Page 6