Research Guides: Public Affairs Resources: US Congress, Federal Agencies, Money in Politics

U.S. Federal Documents and Grant Funding

Government Organization

U.S. Government Departments and Agencies
Use specific keywords in search line or find a U.S. government department and agency web site
Congressional Directory
104th Congress (1995-96) -present
Complete guide to committees, district maps, elected officials, executive branch contacts
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Brief biographical information on all senators and congress persons from the Continental Congress in 1774 to the present. Search by name, state, party, position, or year.

General Index to US Government Documents

GPO Monthly Catalog This link opens in a new window
Index to selected U.S. federal government documents produced by all branches and agencies of the government from 1976-present. Contains references to books, reports, studies, serials, maps, and other publications. NOTE: Many federal documents do not appear in this index. Also consult AGENCY WEBSITES (eg. www.state.gov/ ) or by searching titles using a search engine, such as Google.

Congressional Documents

Congress.gov (formerly called Thomas)
official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. It is presented by the Library of Congress (LOC) using data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Government Publishing Office, Congressional Budget Office, and the LOC's Congressional Research Service.
GovInfo
[REPLACES FDSYS] Congressional publications (e.g. hearings, reports, documents), since the mid1990s and U.S. statutes, regulations (ALL YEARS OF Federal Register, 1996-present of Code of Federal Regulations), and more.

ProQuest Congressional [Selected Articles in Full Text] This link opens in a new window
(1789-present; dates vary for publications) Find the full text of Congressional reports and documents, bills, public laws and hearing testimony. Includes Congressional Record, legislative histories, committee prints, and information on members of Congress; federal regulations. Also includes studies for Congress from the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Proquest Legislative Insight
ProQuest Legislative Insight is a federal legislative history service that makes available thoroughly researched compilations of digital full text Congressional publications relevant to enacted U.S. public laws from 1789-present. Provides compiled histories of laws enacted from 1789 to the present, including the following document types: bills, reports, documents, hearings, CRS reports, committee prints, Congressional Record sections, presidential signing statements, and statutes. Legislative Insight includes only documents related to the passage of a law. For hearings, reports, bills, etc., that are not part of a legislative history, please use Proquest Congressional.
CQ Electronic Library
Includes CQ Magazine (Weekly), CQ Almanac and CQ Congress collection offering important information and documents about congressional activities. Find essays on U.S. and global public issues; Documents and statistics on U.S. politics, congress, supreme court, voting & elections.

Federal Regulations

Regulations.gov
Find U.S. federal regulations, including rules, comments, adjudications and supporting documents. NOTE: Current and historical regulations in FdSys and Proquest Congressional
GovInfo
Find text of all years of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations 1996-present
Proquest Regulatory Insight
ProQuest Regulatory Insight offers U.S. federal administrative law histories for the period 1936 to the present organized by federal statute and Executive Order. Includes compilations of Federal Register (FR) notices, proposed rules, and rules representing the complete rulemaking process associated with specific Public Laws. Serves as companion database to Proquest Legislative Insight.

Federal and State Grant Funding

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
The CFDA provides key information on the existing federally funded programs for projects at the local, state and national levels. Find legislation authorizing each funded program, program objectives, application information, recent budget figures, links to program web page, and often has references to the Code of Federal Regulation.
Grants.gov
FInd grants posted by agencies of the US federal government
Grant Funding Sources in the States
Find corporate and community grant making sources in each state, including the top grant givers.

U.S. Statutes and Supreme Court

U.S. Statutes at Large
"Every law, public and private, ever enacted by the Congress is published in the Statutes at Large in order of the date of its passage." Entire set of statutes in paper is at the Law Library.
Supreme Court of the United States
Text of opinions, oral arguments from recent years and other information
Nexis Uni (formerly Lexis Nexis Academic)
"Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis ® —including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790."

Money in Federal Politics

OpenSecrets.org
The Center for Responsive Politics is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Provides official disclosures by candidates for federal offices.

U.S. Federal Election Commission
Provides official disclosures by candidates for elective federal offices.

Sunlight Foundation
Shedding light on financing politics

U.S. Budget
Issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Budget of the United States Government is a collection of documents that contains the budget message of the President, information about the President's budget proposals for a given fiscal year, and other budgetary publications that have been issued throughout the fiscal year.