Policy and Legislative Research for Congressional Staff: Finding Documents, Analysis, News, and Training

"During the legislative process, many documents are prepared by Congress and its committees. Governmental and nongovernmental entities track and record congressional activities, and many more entities chronicle and analyze the development of public policy. The wide availability of such information can be daunting to those involved in policy and legislative research. The purpose of this report is to assist congressional staff in identifying and accessing key resources used during such research.

The resources’ titles and access information are presented in eight tables. The tables provide information on how to find congressional documents (Table 1); information on tracking legislative activity (Table 2); executive branch documents and information (Table 3); information about legislative support agencies (Table 4); congressional news sources (Table 5); policy and scholarly research sources (Table 6 and Table 7); and research-related training and services for congressional staff (Table 8).

This report is not a comprehensive catalog of resources for conducting policy and legislative research; instead, it provides a selection of widely used electronic resources. Some of the resources mentioned are available only with a paid subscription, whereas others are free; this availability is noted in the report along with the access points for congressional staff. Print resources for time periods not covered by the resources listed in the tables may be available from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the Law Library of Congress, or the House and Senate Libraries. The inclusion of resources in this report does not imply endorsement by CRS of the content or the products listed. In addition, CRS does not acquire or manage congressional offices’ access to subscription resources..."
Policy and legislative research

Legislative Research for Congressional Staff: How to Find Documents and Other Resources

"This report is one of a series of reports on legislative process and research; it is intended to serve as a finding aid to sources of information, such as documents, news articles, analysis, contacts and services, used in legislative research. It does not define or describe the purpose of various government documents; that information can be found in companion CRS Report R41865, Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staff , and CRS Report

RL33895, Researching Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staff..."

 Legislative Research