U.S. Government Information: Legislative

Please be aware that ProQuest, HeinOnline and Readex resources are available remotely only to the UCSD community. Anyone may use these resources within the library, however. The UCSD Library also has print copies of many of these documents; use the library catalog to find call numbers and locations.

Note also that, while years listed indicate inclusive dates covered, they may not be comprehensive collections.

* Plus citations/abstracts and selected testimony transcripts 2004-current.

The CIS microfiche collection (1970-2010) includes Committee and Subcommittee hearings and prints, House and Senate reports, documents, and special publications, Senate executive reports and documents, and public laws.

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation presents published congressional records from 1774-1875. It includes the Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-89); the Letters of Delegates to Congress (1774-89); the Journals of the House of Representatives (1789-1875) and the Senate (1789-1875); debates of Congress as published in the Annals of Congress (1789-1824), the Register of Debates (1824-37), Congressional Globe (1833-73), and Congressional Record (1873-75); the Statutes at Large (1789-1875); the American State Papers (1789-1838); and congressional bills and resolutions for selected sessions beginning with 1799 in the House of Representatives and 1819 in the Senate. A select number of documents and reports from the monumental U.S. Congressional Serial Set are available as well.

Political scientist Brian Libgober has constructed A Comprehensive Dataset of U.S. Federal Laws, listing legislative actions from 1789-2022. The dataset includes each action's title, date of passage, citation information, source (HeinOnline, GPO, NARA), and more.

For information about witnesses who testified in House hearings from 1971-2016, see the Congressional Witnesses Dataset (no longer available, but see Internet Archive capture).

See Dates of Sessions of the Congress for exact dates of each Congress/session

U.S. Congressional Serial Set (UCSD affiliates or in-library use only)

• Reports, documents, and journals of the Senate and House of Representatives, 1817-1980

Tables and Annotated Index to the Congressional Series of United States Public Documents

• Contents of the Serial Set, 15th - 52nd Congresses

Index to the Reports and Documents ("Documents Index")

• Alphabetical subject index to publications in the Serial Set, 54th - 72nd Congresses

Numerical Lists and Schedule of Volumes of the Reports and Documents ("Numeral List")

• 73rd - 96th Congresses

United States Congressional Serial Set Catalog

• 98th - 105th Congresses

These resources will help track current legislation by topics, bills, and/or members of Congress.

Research reports prepared for the Congress generally provide excellent background information on the topic covered. Examples of these include Congressional Budget Office reports, Government Accountability Office reports, and Congressional committee prints.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports are non-partisan, high-quality research on timely issues. UCSD users should start with the ProQuest Congressional collection for CRS reports, which covers 1916-present.  Additional sources are listed below.