Federal Research: Congress & Legislation

Circulation Desk

• Phone: (478) 301-2612

Reference Service

• reference@law.mercer.edu

Law Library Website

LAWCAT online catalog

Mercer University Libraries

Librarians

Sharon Bradley

• bradley_s@law.mercer.edu
• Phone: (478) 301-2638  

Ismael Gullon

• gullon_i@law.mercer.edu
• Phone: (478) 301-5904

Staff

Amberly Cole

• cole_ad@law.mercer.edu
• Phone: (478) 301-2982

Brenna McNulty

• mcnulty_b@law.mercer.edu
• Phone: (478) 301-2614

Julie Register

• register_j@law.mercer.edu
• Phone: (478) 301-2613

• United States Constitution - from the Legal Information Institute
• United States Constitution - Current & historical texts from the Law Library of Congress.
• An annotated version of the United States Constitution can be found in United States Code Annotated published by West or the United States Code Service published by Lexis.

By Mike Wirth and Dr. Suzanne Cooper Guasco, WikiMedia Commons

This infographic was awarded first prize in the Sunlight Foundation “Design for America Competition” 2010. Accuracy was judged based on the details in How Our Laws Are Made - Learn About the Legislative Process.

The body of law created by acts of a legislature is Statutory law.  At the federal level the statutory laws are those acts passed by the United States Congress, comprised of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

BILLS - introduced in a chamber of Congress and referred to committee

• Bill Text Received Today
  • Other Bill Text Advanced Search
• Congressional Bills - 1993 to present
• Early bills - see A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates
  • House bills from 1799–1873
  • Senate bills from 1819–1873

COMMITTEES - hold hearings and recommend passage (or not)

Committee membership

• Senate
• House of Representatives

Congressional Record Daily Digest - summarizes committee activities

•   Congressional Record 1995 to present
• Congressional Record 1994 to present

Publications

Hearing Transcripts

• Committee Hearings - select House and Senate hearings 1995 to present

Committee Prints

• Committee Prints - 1975 to present
  • Browse Committee Prints (Library of Congress)

Committee Reports

•  Committee Reports - 1995 to present
• Committee Reports - 1995 to present, also referred to as Congressional Reports
  • Conference Reports

ACTIONS

Floor - Debates & Voting

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873.

• Congressional Record 1995 to present
• Congressional Record 1994 to present
• Historical debates (1789-1873) - see A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation: Debates of Congress

Presidential - Approve or Veto

• Compilation of Presidential Documents - 1992 to present

LAWS

Once a bill is passed by Congress and signed by the President it becomes a Public Law (Pub. L.). There are also Private Laws (Priv. L.). Public laws relate to the general public, while private laws relate to specific institutions or individuals. Most of the laws passed by Congress are public laws.  The Public Law number is based on the Congress and when it was issued. Therefore, P.L. 105-18 would be the eighteenth law enacted in the 105th Congress. 

Public laws are first published as separate pamphlets called Slip Laws. Annually they are bound into the Statutes at Large in the order in which they were passed (chronological).

Eventually, the laws are organized by subject, indexed, and published in the United States Code (U.S.C.). This process is called codification. The current U.S. Code has 54 separately numbered titles. Each title contains laws specifically relating to that particular subject.

• Browse the U.S. Code - from the Office of the Law Revision Council

Public Laws (Pub. L.)

• Public Laws
•   Public Laws

Statutes at Large (Stat.)

• Statutes at Large - 1951-2017
• Historic Statutes at Large (Library of Congress) - 1789-1875

United States Code (U.S.C.)

•  United States Code
  • Other citation abbreviations are USCA (U.S. Code Annotated, Westlaw) and USCS (U.S. Code Service, Lexis)

Other Sources

• Legal Information Institute
• Office of Law Revision Counsel USC
  • Look for the Popular Name Table

Positive law Titles: 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 23, 28, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 46, 49, 51, and 54

• When a title of the United State Code was enacted into positive law, the text of the title became legal evidence of the law. Titles that have not been enacted into positive law are only prima facie evidence of the law. In that case, the Statutes at Large still govern.

Historical Material and Legislative Histories

• Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws on the Internet: Free Sources - Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC
• Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation - expanding collection of digitized historical U.S. Congressional documents from the Library of Congress.

Other Resources

• A comprehensive research guide on the publication of federal statutes is available from Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC)  - Includes United States Statutes at Large and the United States Code: Historical Outline, Notes, Lists, Tables, and Sources.
• Legislative Process: Overview from Congress.gov. 
• Library of Congress: Guide to Law Online - Includes guides to understanding United States law and links to substantive materials.

PRINT

Most of these documents are available in print through the Federal Depository Library Program.

• Federal Depository Libraries

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

• Federal Legislative History - Pence Law Library, American University