On Campus
There is no collection of Bills in the Blume Library, but the Law Library has a microfiche collection of bills from 1980 to the present.
On this page
Internet Sources
The Government Publishing Office's govinfo.gov website is the major online source for relatively recent bills.
- Congressional Bills1993-present. legislative proposals from the House and/or the Senate.
- Congressional Bills Metadata Fields & Valuesprovides technical information for conducting customized searches
- Congressional Calendars1995-present with a delay. Includes the Calendars of the U.S. House of Representatives and History of Legislation and the Senate Calendar of Business.
- History of Bills1983-present. Lists legislative actions on bills that are reported in the Congressional Record.
- Congress.gov: Legislationbill status can be followed by Committee by using the filters on the left
More about Bills
Congress.gov offers advanced search and browsing features that make it a great place to find legislation and related Congressional material (except for Hearings). The "Legislation" link at the top of the page calls up all legislation since 1973 (full text only back to 1993) with the option to search within this database or limit the results in a variety of ways.
Bill tracking is made much easier by many of Congress.gov's features, including their tracking graphic which accompanies every legislative entry. Note that the type of legislation (bill, resolution) is clearly noted as well:
- Congress.gov: Legislationbill status can be followed by Committee by using the filters on the left
Other sources:
When there is disagreement between the House and Senate version of bills, the two groups meet in a conference to iron out the differences. In the first link below, you can find links to recent Conference Reports.
- Conference Reportsreports of conferences to iron out differences between House and Senate bill versions
- Active Legislationa handy index to active legislation, showing at which stage in the process each measure currently resides, what future action is predicted, and the legislation's effects on programs and appropriations
- Current Legislative & Regulatory Activitythis current listing is updated weekly when Congress is in session
- Legislative History Resources Reference Chartreference lists giving online sources (complete with dates of coverage)
Other Congressional actions
There are several different types of Congressional action in addition to bills: Resolutions, Joint Resolutions and Concurrent Resolutions. The 
abbreviations used to cite these various documents can be difficult to decipher for someone unfamiliar with the system. Here are some citation examples:
- S. 500 means Senate Bill #500
- S.Res. 13 means Senate Resolution #13
- S.J.Res. 3 means Senate Joint Resolution #3
- S.Con.Res. 11 means Senate Concurrent Resolution #11
- H.R.344 means House Bill #344
- H.Res. 6 means House Resolution #6
- H.J.Res. 13 means House Joint Resolution #13
- H.Con.Res. 5 means House Concurrent Resolution #5
Terminology note: once a Bill has been passed by either the House or the Senate, it becomes an Act.
For some explanations of the history and purpose of these different types of Congressional actions, consult the following websites:
- Legislative Processfrom the House of Representatives
Make your voice heard
The first website/tool listed below (a play on the Latin phrase Vox Populi, or "Voice of the People," provides information on current bills and how they are faring in Congress. Some of their apps make it easy to contact your legislators in support or opposition to bills being considered. Our own LibGuide gives contact information and photos of all our local, state, and national representatives:
- PopVoxby signing up you can create alerts concerning specific bills or subjects
- Contact your LegislatorsBlume Library's directory of local representatives at the local, state, and national levels