Research Guides: SOWK 627: Policy and Macro Practice in Child, Youth and Family Services: Legislative Process

Understanding the Legislative Process

Overview of legislative process from Congress.gov. For more videos and tutorials go to: https://www.congress.gov/legislative-process

Learning About the Legislative Process

Websites

Congress.gov
The official source for federal legislative information. The site includes materials on current and past legislation.
United States Senate
U.S. House of Representatives Committee Hearings
California Legislative Information

Recommended Databases

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Academic OneFile is the premier source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources.
With extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects, Academic OneFile is both authoritative and comprehensive. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, researchers are able to find accurate information quickly. Includes full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995. Updated daily.
Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new window
This database indexes and abstracts a broad spectrum of Congressional publications, including hearings (testimony), committee prints, reports, documents, and full text of bills and public laws, and the U.S. Statutes at Large from 1789 to the present.
Military Database This link opens in a new window
The Military Database covers topics across all government and military branches, including international relations, political science, criminology, defense, aeronautics and space flight, communications, civil engineering, and more. An important benefit of the Military Database is its content diversity. Included are scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A growing full text collection of core social science, humanities, and science journals and books.
CQ Researcher Plus Archive This link opens in a new window
CQ Researcher is noted for its in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy.
Reports are published weekly 44 times a year. Each single-themed, 12,000-word report is researched and written by a seasoned journalist, each providing researchers with an introductory overview; background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources. The CQ Researcher Plus Archive adds more than 3,000 reports, published between 1923 and 1990 to CQ Researcher Online.
Polling the Nations This link opens in a new window
Database of public opinion polls taken on a variety of subjects.
Although the database contains polls from all over the world, the majority were conducted in the United States. Each record in the database consists of one poll question and the participants' responses. Also includes source of poll, contact information, sample size, and notes on the sample population. Records are searchable by subject, publication year, general and specific location of poll and survey method.
CQ Press Electronic Library This link opens in a new window
An integrated search environment for obtaining analysis on Congressional issues in the news and coverage of the status of bills, votes and amendments, floor and committee activity, and backroom maneuvering.
This database searches the full-text of CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, CQ Historic Documents, contact directories, a variety of reference books, and selected datasets focused on issues in U.S. politics and areas of public policy, such as, health care, education, economics, bioethics, environment, and society. Contents are created by more than 125 Capitol Hill reporters, editors, and researchers to provide non-partisan coverage and detailed analysis of issues facing Congress on a daily basis. Coverage is from 1972 to the present.
PolicyFile This link opens in a new window
Public policy research indexing and abstracting, as well as full text items.
PolicyFile includes information addressing virtually all aspects of public policy. Specific themes listed include: Arms Control, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Democratization, the Department of Defense, Economic Policy, Education Policy, the European Union, Global Economics and International Trade, Health Policy and Health Care Reform, Human Rights, Immigration, Intelligence, Latin America, Science and Technology Policy, State and Local Issues, Terrorism, and Urban Policy. The database can be browsed by primary contributor or thematically and all abstracts have been linked to Home Pages, electronic mail addresses and full text documents, where available.

Selected Reference Sources

CQ Almanac This link opens in a new window
The CQ Almanac Online Edition brings together over sixty years of authoritative congressional reporting in one, easy-to-use resource.
The site pairs all of the content from the print volumes with a number of electronic features and functions that make navigating the content fast and easy. with efforts have been made to create a uniform interface that facilitates searching and browsing of all content. With the online edition users can navigate with ease through 60 years of congressional coverage; access tables, graphs, and charts that help explain the issues; browse by subject, decade, or by a particular year's table of contents; use Policy Tracker to explore a specific policy topic and see how it has changed over the years; save useful documents or frequent searches for future consultation; and, automatically generate citations in four styles with CQ Press's CiteNow! Feature.