Federal Depository Library
Penn State Libraries
Federal Depository Library since 1858
Bills
House and Senate Bills are the usual form in which legislation is proposed to the U.S. Congress. Although thousands of bills may be introduced, few are enacted into law, and many do not receive serious consideration. If not enacted into law, a bill "dies" at the end of a Congress.
- United States Senate : Active Legislationfind current Congressional Bills. Includes historical bills back to the 104th Congress (1995-1996).
- House of Representatives : Legislative Activityfind current legislative activity for the House. Includes video of these legislative sessions.
- Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window"A Federal legislative history service that makes available thoroughly researched compilations of digital full text publications created by Congress during the process leading up to the enactment of U.S. Public Laws."
- FDsys [Federal Digital System]The Federal Government’s official, digital, secure resource for producing, procuring, cataloging, indexing, authenticating, disseminating, and preserving the official information products of the U.S. Government. Some important public policy content in FDsys are:
- Congress.gov : Search by Bill numberfind House and Senate Bills back to the 93rd Congress [1973-1974].
Citation
Generally, the citation to a Bill follows the pattern:
[Congress number] [Chamber abbreviation] [Bill number]
101 H.R. 44 is the citation for House Bill 44 in the 101st Congress
101 S. 1054, similarly, is the 1,054th Senate Bill introduced during the 101st Congress
- ProQuest Quick Start Guide: Legislative Insightuse this guide to learn to effectively search Legislative Insight.