LibGuides: Law/Legal Information: Legislative

Federal Government Resources

Congress.gov
Official website for U.S. federal legislative information provided by the Library of Congress. Replaces THOMAS. Find bills, laws, treaties, nominations, information about members of Congress, U.S. founding documents and videos explaining the legislative process. For help in using the site effectively access An introduction to the Congress.gov legislative information website.
ProQuest Congressional Record Permanent Digital Collection
Formerly LexisNexis Congressional, this resource is the digitized version of the bound Congressional Record (1873-to date) and its three predecessors, the Annals of Congress (1789-1824), the Register of Debates (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873). The Congressional Record Permanent Digital Collection covers the period 1789-1997. More recent material can be found on the general ProQuest Congressional site.
Slip Laws/Public and Private Laws at govinfo.gov
Contains the official text of public and private laws (slip laws) enacted from the 104th Congress to the present (1995-present).
U.S. Statutes at Large at govinfo.gov
Compiled slip laws and more. It becomes the permanent format and supersedes the slip laws after U.S. Statutes at Large volume is published.
Public and private laws and resolutions passed during each Congressional session.

Full Text Access (1789 Volume 1-Present):
1. Free public access
(1)1951-present (82nd Congress 1st Session-)(V.65-): Digital at govinfo.gov, published by GPO .
(2) 1789 - current volume: Paper. Kelley Center Government Publications-STACKS, AE 2.111
(3) 1789 - 1950. (V.1-V.64) Digital at loc.gov posted by Library of Congress

2. Free access for Rice faculty/staff/students:
1789-present: Digital access via HeinOnline (Fondren Library subscription database)
United States Code at govinfo.gov
Codification by subject matter (50 titles) of the general and permanent laws of the United States. Currently 1994-present, but check to see what new years have become available.

Other Related Resources

Policy Agendas Project
University of Texas at Austin project which traces national policy changes and agendas since WWII. Datasets are available ranging from Congressional hearings to Supreme Court cases.

Subscription Databases

Congressional Research Service Fulltext This link opens in a new window
Full text of reports from1916 onward published by the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research institute for the United States Congress.
CQ Almanac This link opens in a new window
Sixty years of congressional reporting in an annual summary
CQ Magazine This link opens in a new window
Legislative analysis from CQ Magazine. Available issues are from October 1983 through December 2023.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is the world’s largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database.
Fondren Library has access to:
- HeinOnline Academic
- U.S. State Full Package
- Fastcase Premium

Access to HeinOnline Academic includes the following:
1. Law Journal Library
2. American Enterprise Institute
3. Brennan Center for Justice Publications
4. CaseLaw Powered by FastCase (basic)
5. Civil Rights and Social Justice
6. Code of Federal Regulations
7. Federal Register Library
8. COVID-19: Pandemics Past and Present
9. Criminal Justice & Criminology
10. Executive Privilege
11. Foreign Relations of the United States
12. GAO Reports and Comptroller General Decisions
13. Gun Regulation and Legislation in America
14. History of International Law
15. History of Supreme Court Nominations
16. John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection
17. Legal Classics
18. Military and Government
19. NOMOS: American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy
20. Pentagon Papers
21. Religion and the Law
22. Reports of U.S. Presidential Commissions and Other Advisory Bodies: A Bibliographic Listing
23. Slavery in America and the World
24. U.S. Code
25. U.S. Congressional Documents
26. U.S. Congressional Serial Set
27. U.S. Federal Agency Documents, Decisions, and Appeals
28. U.S. Federal Legislative History
29. U.S. Presidential Impeachment Library
30. U.S. Presidential Library
31. U.S. Statutes at Large
32. U.S. Supreme Court Library
33. U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library
34. Women and the Law
35. World Constitutions Illustrated

The U.S. State Full Package includes:
1. State Constitutions Illustrated
2. Session Laws Library
3. State Statutes: A Historical Archive
4. Bar Journals Library
5. State Attorney General Reports & Opinions
6. State Reports: A Historical Archive
7. Prestatehood Legal Materials
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Lexis Nexis Academic includes government and legal information with access to government and political news, legal news, and state and federal statutes and case law. Also includes law reviews, state and country profiles and other news and reference resources.
Nexis Uni offers an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
Congressional by ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to historical (1789- ) and current U.S. Congressional publications, federal bills and laws, and information about members of Congress and Congressional committees.
WestlawNext Campus Research This link opens in a new window
Westlaw includes U.S. and state case law (1944-). The system also includes access to: United States Code Annotated, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register (fulltext 1980+), state administrative codes and statutes.
Please remember to link to Westlaw Campus from the Rice website (after configuring for proxy) - Westlaw's security uses a combination of IP/computer address and a customer-specific URL. Using another library link just won't do!