![[GPO computer]](../images/flgcpicn.gif)
Path of
Legislation Each topic below has sections covering resources in the Library (where you will also find more explanatory material) and on the Web as well as Texas Legislation. More information is available in our guide, Congress, Laws and Regulations, which is also available in printed form at the Reference Desk.
House and Senate Bills —Text of Bills, Committee Work on Bills, Floor Debate
Laws •
Regulations •
References, Guides and Other Helpful Sources
| NOTE: Resources marked with an asterisk (*) are restricted to St. Mary's students, faculty and staff. Click here for information on remote usage. If you are not connected with St. Mary's, there may be other equivalent resources that you can use to find the same information off-campus. Some of these alternatives are described in this guide, or ask a Reference Librarian for assistance. |
House and Senate Bills (proposed legislation)
Text of Bills
|
||||||
Committee Work on Bills
In the Library. All current House, Senate, and Joint Committee reports, hearings and
committee prints appear in the
Library Catalog,
as well as important older publications. The catalog provides call number
and other location information. Detailed indexing is also available in
*Congressional Universe.
Congressional Information Service Index (CIS) is the print equivalent
of Congressional Universe and the Blume Library has CIS volumes for 1970-92.
The Law Library has a current subscription to the CIS
Index. (UTSA has the CIS microfiche collection, which includes
all the documents referenced in the Index.)
|
On the Web.
*Congressional
Universe provides access to the full text of many hearings, prints,
reports and documents, especially if published in the last 5-10 years.
Individual Committees have made varying amounts of information available, including prints, hearings, and other materials. If you are looking for information from a specific committee, including their upcoming schedule of hearings, Thomas and GPO Access provide a good gateways. Both sites have most reports beginning with 1994. Formats are ASCII text and PDF, and the database is searchable. House and Senate Calendars, which can be used to trace action on bills in the past, can be searched at GPO Access back to the 104th Congress (1995). |
| Texas Legislation. Some committee reports from the Texas Legislature are available in the Library. These reports are shelved in the Texas Documents stacks with call numbers in the L 1800 area and all appear in the Library Catalog. On the Web, information about Texas legislative committees (membership, calendars, etc.) is available at Texas Legislature Online, but Committee reports are not available at this time. |
Floor Debate
| In the Library. The daily proceedings of business on the floor of Congress are recorded in the Congressional Record (X 1.1: ). We no longer receive daily issues of the Record, but annual cumulations are published, which we receive on microfiche. Annual indexes, however, and summary volumes called Daily Digests, are received in bound form. | On the Web.
GPO
Access has a searchable Congressional Record database from
1995 to the present in either ASCII text or PDF. The 1994
database does not contain section headings. The index
to the Record is searchable back to 1983, which is a helpful adjunct
to the Library's paper/microfiche holdings.
Thomas also has the Record
in searchable form back to 1989. The index is available only to 1994.
Each day's Daily Digest, a summary of activity, is available as published
on both GPO Access and Thomas.
St. Mary's students, faculty and staff may search and view the Congressional Record back to 1985 on *Congressional Universe in the Law Library. |
| Texas Legislation. The Law Library has Texas House and Senate Journals in paper format. These are the Texas equivalents of the Congressional Record. The Texas Legislature Online has some calendars and schedules. Remember that the Texas "Lege" only meets every other year (odd numbered years) unless a special session is called. | |
| In the Library.
Given the ease and speed with which laws are now available online, the Blume Library no longer receives printed copies of new laws. The Law Library does, however.
After a few years, the slip laws are bound into a more permanent form called the Statutes at Large (AE 2.111: ), which the Library receives in printed form. The slip law sequence numbers are retained, as are the legislative histories. Each bound volume of Statutes contains an index and table of contents. Every five years a new codification, or summary, of the laws in force in different subject areas is published. This is called the U.S. Code (Y 1.2/5: ). These volumes (and their supplements) do not include full text of any laws, but give Statutes at Large citations for all laws and amendments. The Code is organized into "titles" that cover broad subject areas. There is a general subject index and a useful Popular Names Index.
|
On the Web. The full text
of laws is searchable through
*Congressional
Universe back to 1988, with titles and synopses back to 1789. The
current U.S. Code, updated monthly, is also available through this
service.
GPO Access has a searchable database of laws from 1995 (104th Congress) to the present. You may choose ASCII text or PDF. The laws databases are searchable, or you may browse a list of available laws. There are several different sites which offer access to the U.S. Code online, including the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School, and GPO Access. |
| Texas Legislation.
*Lexis-Nexis provides
access to Texas Statutes for St. Mary's students, faculty and staff.
Texas Legislature Online offers the Texas Statutes; the database is fully updated about a year after the close of a Legislative session. The Statutes database, analogous to the U.S. Code, is searchable, or you can browse in a particular section (e.g., the Agriculture Code). |
| In the
Library. All proposed and adopted regulations must
first appear in the Federal Register before
they can take effect. Other features often included in the Register are notices of open meetings and special announcements. The Blume Library no longer receives the Register, but the Law Library has current issues and backfiles to 1936, mostly
in microfilm.
Codification of the "gist" of regulatory law in all areas is published as the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). More information in the form of summaries and explanations is given in the Federal Register when a regulation is adopted, but the essential items are in the CFR. It is revised continually, section by section (but not in order). The Blume Library no longer receives the CFR, but the Law Library has current issues and backfiles.
|
On the Web.
*Congressional
Universe provides access to the Federal Register back to 1980, and
to the current Code of Federal Regulations.
GPO Access has the Federal Register in a searchable database back to 1994, although the 1994 issues do not contain section headings and illustrations are in TIFF format. For 1995 to the present, three formats are available: ASCII text format (full text, graphics omitted), Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF--full text with graphics), and summary format (abbreviated text). The most current CFR is online at GPO Access, and they also have editions back to 1996. |
| Texas Regulations. The Texas Register is the Texas equivalent of the Federal Register. In addition to proposed and adopted state regulations, this publication also announces hearings and meetings. While the Legislature is in session, the current status of the most important bills is also given in each issue. The Blume Library does not receive the Register, but the Law Library does. The Texas equivalent of the CFR is the Texas Administrative Code, which is available on campus only at the Law Library, but both the Register and the TAC are online, at the Texas Secretary of State. |
References, Aids and Other Publications
| In the Library.
CQ Weekly. Includes articles on topics of major legislation, status of bills, voting records, summaries of Supreme Court decisions. A good source of bill numbers as well as general legislative information. Available online through various databases. CQ Almanac (REF JK 1 .C66). Annual review of legislative action, including summaries of legislation, voting records, etc. *Academic Search Complete. Index to general interest and news magazines as well as some specialized journals and newspapers. News articles are good sources of overview and commentary on legislation; they may give bill numbers and other documentation that can aid in searching for actual documents. These are some guides to the legislative process and legislative research:
|
On the Web.
In addition to the online help files to be used in conjunction with GPO Access and Thomas, consult our guide to Congress, Laws and Regulations. The following are some other Web-based guides to legislation, the legislative process and legislative research: (Be aware that references to onsite resources apply to the libraries where these guides were created; we may not have the same material in our Library)
How Our Laws Are
Made (from Thomas) |
| NOTE: Resources marked with an asterisk (*) are restricted to St. Mary's students, faculty and staff. Click here for information on remote usage. If you are not connected with St. Mary's, there may be other equivalent resources that you can use to find the same information off-campus. Some of these alternatives are described in this guide, or ask a Reference Librarian for assistance. |
![[GPO books]](../images/bkflgicn.gif)