Research Guides: Law, History & Culture: Finding Congressional & State Legislative Sources

U.S. Congressional Sources

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates
Includes the records and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention through the 43rd Congress, including the first three volumes of the Congressional Record, 1873-75.

Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a range of sources:
1) The Congressional Record - the official verbatim record of the proceedings and debates of the Congress, published daily when Congress is in session (Bound edition: 1789-present; Daily Edition: 1985 - present)
2) The full text of bills and public laws (1789 - present)
3) Hearings (1824-present)
4) House & Senate Reports and Documents (1817 - present)
5) The U.S. Statutes (1789 - present)
6) Executive Branch documents (1789 - 1939) and Executive orders and Presidential Proclamations (1789 - present)
7) The Congressional Serials Set (1789 - present)
8) Vote Report (1987 - present)
U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 This link opens in a new window
From Readex/Newsbank
It documents the official activities of the committees of the House and the Senate, including the journals, reports, and documents. In addition, through the nineteenth century the Serial Set also included publications of the executive departments relating to important public issues. It contains, for example, reports on education, public health, and agriculture, as well as maps and color plates. The database consists of approximately 369,000 publications published in 14,500 volumes and over 11 million pages.
ProQuest Executive Branch Documents This link opens in a new window
The Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1939, offer an extensive collection of documents produced by the Federal government from our nation's founding through the early 20th century.
In addition to offering a record of Federal department and agency activities, this collection provides insight into virtually all facets of society.
Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
(1789-2015)
Find all versions of a bill and all documents, reports, Congressional Record excerpts, and hearings related to the passage of a law. Legislative histories can be used to determine Congressional intent or to clarify vague or ambiguous statutory language.
With the focus on the public law, ProQuest Legislative Insight will make available approximately 18,000 legislative histories covering laws from 1929 to the present. 9,000 of these are brand new and 4,000 (from 1969-1983) include new research. PDF documents included with the public laws include bills (all versions), legislative reports, documents, CRS reports, committee prints, speeches in the Congressional Record and presidential signing statements.

For more in depth guidance consult USC's Asa V. Call Research Guide on conducting Federal Legislative History Research

Guide to Researching State Legislative Histories

California Legislative Sources

USC Law Library's Guide to California Legislative History Research

Nexis Uni (formerly LEXIS/NEXIS Academic) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to Deering's California Codes Annotated

California Legislative Information
1999-present (updated daily); for 1993-1998 bills and legislation use http://leginfo.ca.gov/

Other State Legislative Sources

Government Related Primary Sources

American State Papers, 1789-1838 This link opens in a new window
Part of the Archive of Americana, this collection contains legislative and executive documents, many originating from the important period between 1789 and the beginning of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in 1817.
The collection enables students and scholars to easily search and browse every legislative and executive document of the first fourteen U.S. Congresses, and more.
American Founding Era Collection This link opens in a new window
This Rotunda collection provides access to the papers of some of the major figures of the early republic: John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Dolley and James Madison, John Marshall, Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry, and George Washington.
This online collection also includes access to the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution and the Founders Early Access project. All of these digital editions present material from published volumes, including editorial annotations and transcriptions of thousands of documents. This subscription collection also provides powerful advanced search features.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
Declassified Documents Index provides full text access to formerly U.S. government classified documents that Primary Source Media obtains as they are declassified.
The documents emanate from a wide variety of government agencies including the CIA, Department of State, National Security Council, Department of Defense, FBI, etc. It is possible to search by subject, title words, issue date, and documents source. Help in searching is available on-line or ask a librarian in VKC Library for assistance.
The full text of the documents are available online as well as on microfiche in VKC Library. The call number of the microfiche collection is no.427 and it is located in the microfiche cabinets on the east side of the library. It is necessary to have the Fiche Issue Date, the Fiche Number and the Document Number to locate a document in the fiche collection.

National Security Archive
An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States.

Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) This link opens in a new window
Contains the full-text of declassified government documents categorized into over 40 collections, detailing U.S. foreign relations, world events and policy decisions from post-World War II through the 21st century. Collections include: glossaries, chronologies, bibliographies, overviews, and photographs. Click here to see the full list of collections.