Congress and the Policy Process
Professor: Richard Skinner
Librarian: Ginny Hopcroft
Fall 2005
Introduction
Primary Sources
Government Documents in Print
Reference Sources
Political Journals
Indexes/Databases
Introduction
The primary function of Congress is to enact laws which govern the United States. The process of creating legislation is complex, and the documents generated reflect that complexity. Legislation is introduced, congressional committees study the proposal, debate and modify it, and sometimes recommend it to the entire House or Senate for passage. The resulting publications are bills, resolutions, hearings, reports, committee prints, and the Congressional Record. These publications are the primary sources for research into the workings of the U.S. Congress.
These publications and other government documents are housed as a separate collection on the lower level of the Library. The documents are arranged under a unique classification system, called the Superintendent of Documents or SUDOCS classification. In this system documents are organized by issuing agency, not by subject. They are assigned alpha numeric call numbers based on agency and type of publication. These call numbers all have govt or govt ref printed above the number to indicate their location in the Government Documents Collection.
Although the library's online catalog is the primary instrument for accessing the collections of the Bowdoin College Libraries, the Government Documents Collection is as yet only partially entered (about 15% to 20% ) into the online catalog, so special indexes are used to locate the library's government publications. The purpose of this guide is to describe some of those indexes and the primary source documents they access, and to acquaint you with the internet formats for these publications.
For a refresher on the research process, please see the Library's "Getting Started" page. {http://library.bowdoin.edu/1st/}When you have questions about your research, please consult the librarian at the reference desk or Ginny Hopcroft at x3298 or ghopcrof@bowdoin.edu.
Primary Sources
Documents of the U.S. Congress
http://library.bowdoin.edu/govdocs/guides/congdocs.shtml
Finding aid for Congressional documents and publications at Bowdoin College Library, created by Bowdoin library staff.
Thomas
http://thomas.loc.gov/
Named for Thomas Jefferson, this website from the Library of Congress offers full-text access to bills, laws, the Congressional Record, status of current bills, etc. Contains information from the 103rd Congress to the present. Easy to search.
United States House of Representatives
http://www.house.gov/
A good guide to the workings of the House. Provides directory information for House members, detailed calendars, descriptions of House operations and committees, and an excellent internet law library.
The United States Senate
http://www.senate.gov/
Excellent source of detailed information about Senate operations. Contains directories, committees, calendars, history of the Senate, statistics, etc.
GPO Access
http://http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html
The Government Printing Office provides this fulltext service for Congressional publications. Includes publications back to the 102nd Congress. Searching is more complex than in Thomas.
LexisNexis Congressional
Online in Indexes/Databases
LexisNexis Congressional is an online subscription service providing primarily full text access to congressional publications: bills, laws, committee reports, hearings, the congressional record, legislative histories, etc. Coverage goes back to approximately the late 1980's.
Federal Election Commission
http://www.fec.gov/
Financial reports of campaign contributions at all levels of Federal Government.
Government Documents
A list of specific official congressional publications. For more detail on locating these documents, see Documents of the U.S. Congress.
Budget of the United States Government
Govt Ref PrEx2.8
Budget as proposed by the President each spring. Congress then chooses whether or not to pass portions of the Budget.
The Congressional Record (1789 to present, earlier versions under different titles)
Govt X/Cong Sess#
The Congressional Record is the transcript of discussion on the floors of the House and Senate. Current issues are indexed biweekly with a cumulative index issued at the end of each year. The Congressional Record can be subject-searched in Lexis back to 1986.
United States Congressional Serial Set (1789 to present)
Including Committee Reports
Govt Doc Y1.1/2: 1789-1995
Govt Micro Y1.1/2: 1995-
The Serial Set was originally a compilation of all government publications. Currently it contains primarily House and Senate reports (recommendations for or against passage from the Committee studying the bill), House and Senate documents, Senate treaty documents and Senate executive documents. For the years 1789 to 1969, the Serial Set is indexed by both a print set from CIS and the Historical Indexes online in LexisNexis Congressional. Since 1970 the print CIS Index and LexisNexis Congressional provide indexing.
Committee Hearings and Committee Prints
Govt Doc Y4.
Hearings are transcripts of Congressional Committee fact finding sessions, often including testimony of experts or witnesses on the legislation under consideration. Prints are usually special studies by consultants or researchers, prepared for use by the committee. Each hearing and print is published individually. Our library receives all published hearings and prints in paper or microfilm. Hearings are now available online through Bowdoin College Library Catalog http://library.bowdoin.edu/ and GPO Access. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/chearings/index.html
Slip Laws
Govt Doc AE 2.110
When a bill completes the legislative process and is signed into law, it is first published as a slip law, which is simply a pamphlet with the text of the law. To see the text of a public law before the Library has received the print version, try LexisNexis Congressional, Thomas, or GPO Access.
United States Statutes at Large
Govt Doc AE 2.111
Laws passed by Congress are compiled chronologically in these annual volumes.
United States Code
Govt Ref Y 1.2/5
The United States Code is a multi-volume set of the body of current United States law, arranged by subject.
Federal Elections. Code of Federal Regulations Title 11.
Govt Ref AE 2.106/3
Complete listing of regulations governing the election process.
United States. Federal Election Commission.
Govt Y3.E12/3
http://www.fec.gov
The commission publishes a variety of items, but it is mainly concerned with campaign funding and publishes lists of campaign contributions and expenditures.
United States. Census Bureau. Voting and Registration in the Election of-
Govt C 3.186/3
For each election the Bureau provides information about registration and voter participation based on the Current Population Survey, a monthly sample survey of 60,000 households.
Statistical Abstract of the United States 1879-present
Govt C3.134
Reference Sources
Congressional Quarterly Almanac (1945 - present) Annual
Govt Index JK 1 C66
Almanac of American Politics
Main Ref JK 1012 .A44
CIS Annual Government Index
Govt Index KF49 .C62
Congress and the Nation
Main Ref JK411 .66
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 1774-1989.
Govt Ref Y 1.1/3 100-34
Congressional Staff Directory
Main Ref JK1012 .C 65
Federal Staff Directory
Main Ref JK 723 .E9F44
United States government manual
Govt Ref AE 2/108.2:date
Center for Legislative Archives
http://www.archives.gov/records_of_congress/
Useful for historical research on Congress, this National Archives site focuses on describing its Congressional collections, listing records from committees, and describing the means of access to them. (Texts of records and documents are not actually available through the site.)
General Accounting Office
http://www.gao.gov
Reports from this "watchdog" office of Congress provide useful evaluations of the costs and effectiveness of legislated programs.
Project Vote Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org
Well organized information-biographies, finances, issues-about candidates and elected officials at all levels of state and federal government.
Political Journals
To locate articles in the journals below, use the indexes in the following section. Also use JSTOR in the Online Indexes/Databases for fulltext of all articles up to the last 5 years for the journals that are starred.
American Journal of Political Science*
American Political Science Review*
Congressional Quarterly
Journal of Politics*
Legislative Studies Quarterly
National Journal
Political Science Quarterly*
Polity
Public Administration Review
Public Opinion Quarterly*
Social Science Quarterly
Western Political Quarterly or Political Research Quarterly
Indexes and Databases
Some of these databases provide the article citation only, while others contain the full text. To find whether Bowdoin Library either holds the journal in print or provides access to the full text, please click the "check availability link in the database record.
LexisNexis Congressional
Online Indexes/Databases
LexisNexis Congressional is an online subscription service providing primarily full text access to congressional publications: bills, laws, committee reports, hearings, the congressional record, legislative histories, etc. Coverage goes back to approximately the late 1980's.
LexisNexis Academic
Online Indexes/Databases
This full-text web database of news and legal information provides access to both current news and up to 20 years of retrospective news, both domestic and international. Under U.S. news you can find many regional newspapers not otherwise online. Articles may be downloaded to a disk, emailed to your account or printed through the browser's print function.
Academic Search Premier
Online Indexes/Databases
Academic Search Premier indexes over 1800 English-language periodicals in the social sciences, humanities, and science, as well as general interest magazines and several national U.S. newspapers. Coverage varies as far back as 1980, and 60% of the articles are available in fulltext.
Government Documents Monthly Catalog
Online Indexes/Databases
The Government Documents Monthly Catalog is an online index to all government documents published since 1976. Access points include keyword, subject and issuing agency. In some cases congressional hearings and reports are not fully and consistently listed; Congressional Universe or the CIS Annual Index is a better source for those materials. The Monthly Catalog is very useful for locating executive agency publications, congressional commission reports, and others; for a comprehensive search both indexes should be consulted.
When you locate a relevant document in this database, please make note of the "Sudocs" number. The publications in Bowdoin's Government Documents Collection are arranged by the Sudocs classification scheme, and you can locate the document in the Government Documents Collection with that number.
For any publications older than 1976, it's necessary to use the print version of the Monthly Catalog (1895-1970), located on the index tables in the Government Documents Department.
Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)
Indexes/Databases
PAIS indexes "publications on all subjects that bear on contemporary public issues and the making and evaluation of public policy, irrespective of source or traditional disciplinary boundaries." Sources may be periodical articles, books, government documents or the reports of public and private organizations in the U.S. and internationally. Coverage for the electronic version begins with 1972 and continues to the present. The electronic archive covers 1915 to 1985, as does the print version.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Online Indexes/Databases 1975-present
This service indexes scholarly journals of U.S. and international political science. It is comprised of the merged backfiles of Political Science Abstracts and ABC Pol Sci with new publications indexed monthly. Publication coverage goes back to 1975. Selected scholarly web sites may be among the retrieved sources.
