| Contents | |
| Get | Starting points: ready-made profiles of members of Congress and their districts |
| Get | Demographic and economic data on districts, quantitative and qualitative
|
| Get | Political information |
| Get | Directories and biographies |
| Get | Tracking what members do: legislation and oversight |
| Get | Inferring from executive words and deeds |
| Get | Judicial interpretation of congressional districts |
| Get | (Re)Introductions to the congressional paper trail around the UIUC libraries |
| Get | General Internet sources about politics |
| Get | Pencek's tips for profiling a district |
This guide is designed for browsing. That is, we have tried to
arrange sections and items in each section in a rough sequence of use (or usefulness) for
typical research projects about the legislative background and legal basis of government
agencies and programs, though "your mileage may vary" because of the
peculiarities of your topic. Primary-source materials come before ones that have
been edited or otherwise modified because the course assignments underlying this
guide emphasize confronting raw political materials.
For consistency, and to track the order of assignments, we have tended to cluster
online sources near the end of each section -- which is not to suggest that they are not
important sources. But in our experience, it is easier to work efficiently online after
you have gotten familiar with similar print materials first. Note that the federal
government is "migrating" its publications to electronic formats: recent
materials may be available only over the World Wide Web (which is dreadfully slow at
times), some will be available on the Web, on CD-ROM, and/or paper of microform. And for
your research to have any historical depth, you will have to use print and microform
sources. If you have trouble finding the sources you need, talk over your search with a
Government Documents librarian.
Each printed source listed here includes at least one call number: a Superintendent of
Documents ("SuDoc") number, a Dewey Decimal call number for items in the UIUC
collection, and/or sometimes a Library of Congress call number, in case you use the
library of the UIUC law
school or another university. (Note, however, that different libraries might not
assign the same call number to the same item, though they will usually be close.)
Locations may change; new editions and, of course, new sources, may be added, especially
on the Internet. It pays to browse the shelves: if you cannot locate the exact source
listed here, you might find another one with similar coverage under a nearby call number.
This guide is designed to "work" in both online and paper format, suitable
for taking into the stacks or branches or for as a one-stop-shopping point for online
information. You may find it handy to print out this guide in its entirety or to make your
own guide by cutting and pasting pieces from it (and other sources you find useful) into a
word processor or personal web page.
QUICK-SEARCH TIP: use [CTRL]-F in your browser
to find keywords in this guide.
These are the first places to browse; the chances are, if something here piques your
curiosity, it will be interesting enough to pursue. However, don't expect the information
to be sufficient for a term paper.
Start Here: General Overviews Members
and Districts
Almanac of American Politics, Michael Barone et al. Washington: National Journal Inc. Biennial. Arranged alphabetically by state, with lengthy essays on current issues in each state. Briefly profiles members of Congress, with overviews of their character and voting records, and journalistic descriptions of their home constituencies. Revised with each Congress. Use older editions to compare the district (and its representatives) over time.
Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America [year] (formerly Politics in America: Members of Congress in Washington and at Home). Washington: Congressional Quarterly Inc. Modeled on the Almanac of American Politics, with slightly different emphases and perspectives. Arranged alphabetically by state and within each state by (a) state officials, (b) US senators, (c) US representatives. Each chapter contains brief essays about the state as a whole and about its congressional districts. Biographical information for senators and representatives includes voting records, interest group ratings, election results, committee memberships, and campaign financing. Revised with each Congress.
"Project Vote Smart." This huge web database provides data on every member of Congress (and the president, governors, and state legislators), without the narrative or analytical force of the Almanac of American Politics. So you'll have to make some inferences from the raw information rather than take someone else's word. Data include summary biographies, contact information, responses to a questionnaire on hot topics, voting information, campaign funding sources, and contact information.
Congressional Districts in the 1990s: A Portrait of America. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1994. Arranged by state, then district, this "portrait" includes brief essays on the political and economic highlights of each district and extensive demographic information that includes educational institutions, media outlets, and major employers. District maps and some statewide demographic tables begin each state section. The essays are less illuminating than those in the Almanac of American Politics but the identification of major communications and employment centers is a good place to start pinning down the specific interests in your district (which may not re semble those the Almanac highlights in its ratings. (Essays are substantially identical to those in CQ's Guide to 1990 Congressional Destricting, Docs 328.7307345 c839)
Congressional Universe (formerly Congressional Universe) "members" files. This part of the large, powerful database on Congress allows you to identify and group members by various characteristics, but the information you retrieve is very sketchy, especially when contrasted to "Project Vote Smart."
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Newsmedia sources are pretty obvious places to start -- find a name or place in the news, then trace it -- and useful for more detailed fact-gathering and interpretation-checking. Hometown newspapers and magazines are more likely than broadcast sources or national magazines to run in-depth profiles of your member. Many of them have online digests. (Don't forget to consult the print and CD-ROM newspaper indexes in Reference.) Bear in mind that online versions will probably lack historical (i.e., pre-1994) depth.
If you have a state or big city in mind, sometimes you'll be able to make fruitful inferences about the people in a district by forming hunches on the basis of encylopedia articles (for in libraries' reference print collections or Britannica Online and even travel guides (for example, from Yahoo)
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A Research Guide to Congress: How to Make Congress Work for You,
2d ed. Judith Manion, Joseph Meringolo, and Robert Oaks. Washington, DC: Legi-Slate, 1991.
Extremely useful, concise walk-through of the documents produced at every stage of the
legislative process. Good discussion of quirks and problems in making sense of matters.
Overflows with examples and illustrations, including a model legislative history of the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 that linking events with their documentation.
Congress and Law-Making: Researching the Legislative Process,
2d ed. Robert U. Goehlert and Fenton S. Martin. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 1989. Very
accessible guide to doing the things you'll do in these assignments. Starts with a
detailed description of each step in the current legislative process and the documents
generated at each stage. Then come user-oriented guides to finding federal legislation,
regulations generated by federal agencies, secondary sources, with special treatment for
budgeting, campaigns and elections, and foreign affairs and treaties. Also includes a
handy guide to correct citation form for these various documents.
Congressional Quarterly Guide to Congress, various eds. Washington: Congressional
Quarterly, 1971-. Comprehensive volume treating history, parts, statistics, and politics
of Congress. Useful for background information and some special topics.
"Congressional Mega Site." Compiled by the Library of
Congress. Annotated list of quality websites dealing with Congress and politics. Includes
indexes to congressional sites, "how-to" guides to congressional databases, and
some related links.
"Michigan State MSOLAR" service (formerly Swarthmore College
SCHOLAR service). An interesting online attempt to walk you through legal and political
research, along the lines of what librarians call "the reference interview."
"Finding Government Information -- What's the Difference?" [Return to table of contents] The Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources,
rev. ed. Diane L. Garner and Diane H. Smith. Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information
Service, 1993. Guide to deciphering US document citations and to citing information found
in government publications.
You'd better be able to cite your electronic sources appropriately if
you're going to pull information off the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, formats haven't
guite standardized yet. Use one authorized by your instructor. (The American Political
Science Association (APSA) has a style manual that is used by mot political science
journals, but that format has not been updated to account for electronic sources. It is
very like the Chicago Manual's "author-date reference style.") APA and
MLA style manuals for online sources are available. Whatever you do, be consistent.
[Return to table of contents] The US Constitution mandates a census every ten years for purposes of apportioning
seats in the House of Representatives. For that reason -- and because members and
interests "back home" want to know about it -- the Census Bureau compiles some
of its data on a district basis.
Demographic and Economic Data
District-specific census data
Congressional Districts of the [#]th Congress. These Census Bureau volumes (one for each state) contain maps of the states showing current congressional district lines. There are large-scale maps of most major metropolitan areas as well, which will help you sort out census data that were compiled by municipality rather than congressional district. These books also provide, for each congressional district in the country, census information on population characteristics (sex, residence, race, age, income, education, occupation, etc.) and housing characteristics (value, rent, size, persons per room, etc.). Statewide totals for these characteristics are also presented. Electronic versions of these data are compiled as "STF 1D" and "STF 3D."
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Guide to 1990 US Decennial Census Publications. Bethesda, MD: CIS, annual. Use the subject and name index that composes the second half of the book, then consult the abstracts in the first half for overviews of the Census publications, then consult the Census document or the ASI fiche.
Census '90 Basics. Bureau of the Census. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1990. See this source to get relatively un-intimidating idea of what, how, and why the Census Bureau collects and publishes what it does.
Census Catalog and Guide. Bureau of the Census. Washington: US Government Printing Office, annual. Much more detailed than the Basics book, this publication provides titles and subject descriptions of every Census publication, including such best-sellers as Finances of Employee Retirement Systems of State and Local Governments in 1985-86 and Consumer, Scientific, Technical, and Industrial Glassware: 1988. and describes each of the Census Bureau's programs (agriculture, business, construction and housing, foreign trade, geography, governments, international, manufacturing and mineral industries, population and housing, and transportation). Appendices direct you to the statistical reports of other government agencies, and to other agencies and companies that interpret and compile to Census Bureau's numbers. The indexing is not very user-friendly: use the CIS Guide to 1990 Census Publications to begin a search by topic, then consult this title to set specific titles in larger contexts.
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Statistical Reports Index. Washington: Congressional Information Service. SRI indexes reports from state governments and think tanks. Uses the familiar CIS format: start with index volumes (accessed by subject, name, category, title, or report number) and then use the abstracts volumes to get a better sense of the substance of the report, then read the full publication on microfiche. Good source of state and local statistical abstracts and reports. See also next title.
American Statistics Index. Washington:
Congressional Information Service. A companion of SRI, ASI is used to
identify, describe, and evaluate all of the major statistical publications of the US
government -- more than 500 sources. There is a wealth of material here,
including some on the most unlikely subjects. May be useful for tracing problems,
points of contention, and porkbarrel.
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Don't forget the value of graphic representations of data, both for your understanding and to enlighten others. Comprehensive atlases provide all sorts of different "cuts" on the data in particular territories. While in general they are imprecise for giving hard data on congressional districts, especially the more populous, smaller-sized ones, they are great points of departure for working out your impressions and developing comparisons. Scholarly atlases are good, but don't forget special-purpose maps or even tourism advertising.
Rand McNally Commercial Atlas and Marketing Guide. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1998. Somewhat more specialized and esoteric than the comprehensive atlases, concentrating on municipal and state statistics of greatest interest to businesses and other users with something to sell.
Atlas of American Agriculture. Richard Pillsbury and John Florin. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1997. Overview of the US by region, then by crops, with detailed essays and some statistics. Very useful bibliography and extensive index.
Atlas of the 1990 Census. Mark T. Mattson. New York: Macmillan, 1992. A significant advance in representing nationally the data compiled in the 1990 Census, including both maps (some to the county level) and graphs. Arranged into sections on population, households, housing, race/ethnicity, economy, and education.
Atlas of the United States: A Thematic and Comparative Approach. New York: Macmillan. Good introduction. Though the data are rather dated, they remain useful for building your historical insights and also for suggesting what kinds of information is available for overlaying on other sorts.
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Online
Electronic databases, whether on the Internet or locally mounted, make it much more convenient to locate, compare, and organize statistical information. The tend not to extend to pre-1990 data, however. Nonetheless, they are a good place to start, familiarizing you with the kinds of data, terminology, and titles you'll need when you refer to print sources.
"Government Information Sharing Project," Oregon State University, is an excellent gateway to a wealth of demographic and economic data from various government agencies. It goes far to humanizing the data for nonspecialists and is organized around a clickable map of the US.
"Census Bureau LOOKUP" allows you to manipulate 1990 census data
Census Bureau "MapStats" offer a more graphical way to get to data on particular locales. Pick a state, then choose either a congressional district or a county -- you'll probably need to look at both -- then look at their "general profiles" to make some hunches, then compare characteristics in the "lookup tables."
Census CD. Faster than Web access but not as flexible. Choose area, then subarea, then compare the "counts" for the characteristics you want to sort and compare.
"FedStats" is a front end for statistical information gathered by more than 70 federal agencies.
"Statistical Resources on the Web: Demographics and Housing," University of Michigan Documents Center, is a very long, annotated "webliography with links.
Census of Population. Bureau of the Census. Washington: US Government Printing Office. There is a US summary volume and a separate volume for each of the fifty states. See also the Census Tracts volumes, covering metropolitan areas and selected regions in each state (Docs C3.223/11:980/#) and especially the Summary Tape File 3A for each state.
"Government Information Project," Oregon
State University, is similarly organized, often with more historical data. See, for example:
Business Statistics. Bureau of the Census. Washington: US
Government Printing Office. A biennial supplement to the Survey of Current Business.
Federal Reserve Banks periodically collect and analyze business and
economic information in their respective regions. The dozen "Fed" banks also
contribute to a national "Beige Book" report, published eight times a year. The
formats of the banks' webpages are not consistent from one bank to the next, nor are the
titles of their publications.
Handbook of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Washington: US Government Printing Office. Huge quantities of economic
statistics. Docs L2.3/5:985. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Bureau of the Census. Washington: US Government Printing Office, annual. This is a standby for national-level information, useful for comparing one district against statewide and national figures, and possibly providing a basis for assessing a member's national vs localist orientation. Source notes for many charts are useful for finding more detailed statistics if needed.
State data centers combine federal, state, and often other sources.
Their documents can range from raw census numbers to analytical publications.
The Association for University Business and Economic Research (AUBER) website
provides a gateway to the member centers. These centers gather and publish good economic
and demographic data that complements, improves upon, or become the basis for official
documents. Sometimes, as in Illinois, these centers publish their state's statistical
abstracts, but most emphasize regional and metropolitan data and analysis. Publication
topics and frequency vary, and most are not on the web. Their staffs may be good sources
for expert information and analysis.
"Key Economic Development Links." University of Minnesota.
State and local governments, as well as private organizations, try to attract
businesses. Often, their publications and websites simply advertise their services
and the attractiveness of doing business in their jurisdiction. But some do provide
localized demographic information. This is a handy gateway site.
The Book of the States. Lexington, KY: Council of State
Governments, annual. The best place to start gathering statewide pictures of the
political structures throught which members of Congress often rise and through which
voters and interests express themselves. Includes election laws, key elements of
state constitutions and policies, and extensive statistical information relating to state
government activities.
CQ's State Fact Finder: Rankings Across America. Harold
A. Hovey and Kendra A. Hovey. Washington: Congressional Quarterly,
annual. Statistical comparison under a dozen broad categories, more timely than similar
"rankings" books at UIUC and relatively user-friendly.
Gale State Rankings Reporter. Detroit:
Gale, 1994. Statistical ranking of states 3,000 diffferent ways. Excellent
location and keywords indexes.
The Library of Congress keeps "meta-indexes" of state and
local government information at http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/state/stategov.html#meta
Most websites that list state information sources offer links to other
sites as well; Poly-Cy and Mansfield University (Larry
Schankman) are very good. [Return
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If your district has one or a few dominant ethnic or age groups, or if it
is near such a concentration, you might want to consult reference works about them.
Qualitative
Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. Judy Galens, Anna J. Sheets, Robyn V. Young, eds. Detroit: Gale, 4 vols., 1995. Essays on ethnic/national groups customarily discuss history of homeland, history of relations with other groups in the US, language and customs, organizations, and notable members.
Main ref, Undergrad Q 305.800973 G131
Related works from this publisher include (other potentially useful works shelved among these:
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[Year] County and City Extra. Lanham. MD: Bernan, annual. Enhances and updates data in the Census Bureau's County and City Data Book (next entry) with information from other official sources. Excellent maps in front help you form some rule-of-thumb hunches about the characteristics of every county in the country. There is a similar title devoted to townships, shelved adjacent.
County and City Data Book. Bureau of the Census. Washington: US Government Printing Office. Provides much the same information as Congressional Districts of the (#th Congress), broken down by cities and counties, rather than by congressional districts. Electronic versions compiled as "STF 1A" and "STF 3A."
USA Counties. Bureau of the Census. Washington: US Government Printing Office. Includes data for counties from the 1982, 1986, and 1991 State and Metropolitan Area Data Books and the 1983, 1988, and 1994 County and City Data Books, giving you a little more basis for historical comparison.
"Government Information Sharing Project," Oregon State University, is similarly organized, often with more historical data. See, for example:
Sourcebook America CD-ROM. Arlington, VA: CACI Marketing. A compilation of demographic information (age, race, housing, income) from the 1990 Census for each state. Search by ZIP code, municipality, or county, among others. This source can be very useful for pinpointing clusters of interests that district-wide data blur, especially in geographically large districts. The interface is not especially intuitive; novice users will prefer to use the tables option rather than the default "query" mode. Permits downloading to floppy disk, for use in spreadsheet or database program.
America's Top-Rated Cities: A Statistical Handbook. Boca Raton: Universal Reference, 1995, five regional editions. Good for making hunches. Compiles data from various public and private sources on 75 cities with populations of 100,000 or more. While the sources of data are duly cited, the data themselves can be problematic -- look for other sources that measure different things, count differently, and/or were compiled by different bodies.
The Association for University Business and Economic Research (AUBER) website provides a gateway to the member centers. These centers gather and publish good economic and demographic data that complements, improves upon, or become the basis for official documents. Sometimes, as in Illinois, these centers publish their state's statistical abstracts. Publication topics and frequency vary, and most are not on the web. Their staffs may be good sources for expert information and analysis.
"Key Economic Development Links." University of Minnesota. State and local governments, as well as private organizations, try to attract businesses. Often, their publications and websites simply advertise their services and the attractiveness of doing business in their jurisdiction. But some do provide localized demographic information. This is a handy gateway site.
America Votes, vv. 1-- . Richard Scammon, Alice McGillivray, and Rhodes Cook, eds. Washington: Congressional Quarterly. An extensive collection of American election data, published every two years. For each congressional district, data are available on the House candidates' identities, the total vote they received, and their percentage of the two-party vote. Statewide results for presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial elections are presented dating back to at least the late 1940s. Information is also presented on contested House, Senate, and presidential primary elections. for some states, provides county-, city, or district-level breakdown of votes. Useful maps of districts, and in some cases, precincts/wards -- remember to look at pre-1990s volumes to note the effect of reapportionment.
Election Data Book: A Statistical Portrait of Voting in America, 1992. Kimball W. Brace et al. Lanham, MD: Bernan, 1992. A wealth of statistical information for 1992 election: not only shows votes cast, turnouts, party affil iation, and eligible population but also conveniently provides 1990 census data on the age and race/ethnicity of the population by county and congressional district. Good graphical representation of relations among data. Using this volume as a model, you may be able to compile similar data for other elections from America Votes and census publications.
Congressional Quarterly's Guide to US Elections. Washington: Congressional Quarterly. Another comprehensive volume, a bit more timely and accessible than the CQ Congressional Guide (Docs Q.328.73 C7611g 1991), on the laws and history of American elections for president, members of both chambers of Congress, and state governors. Useful for setting contexts: issues, activists, and perhaps even accounts of your district or one nearby.
Campaign coverage. Expect more publications and websites to arrive that deal with the 1998 congressional elections and the 2000 campaigns at all levels of government. The following sites are already up and running, with information and links that deal with votes, issues, ideologies, interest groups, parties, people, and so on, packaged various ways and with various degrees of completeness and credibility.
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Federal Election Commission monitors federal election laws, including finance and certain voter eligibility law. Its website includes downloadable databases, detailed reports from the commission, House and presidential campaign funding reports, and easily digested press releases, some dating back to the early 1990s and through 1997
Open Secrets: The Encyclopedia of Congressional Money & Politics. Larry Makinson and Joshua Goldstein, eds. Washington: Congressional Quarterly / Center for Responsive Politics, 1996. Profiles every member of the House and S enate, detailing the leading donors, by economic sector. Also profiles briefly congressional committees and various categories of donor.
Organized interests leave their own paper trails, from magazines to bank accounts to reports to state secretaries of state and the Federal Election Commission. Some important subject headings in the online catalog and the GPO's Monthly Catalog are
Almanac of Federal PACs. Ed Zuckerman. Washington: Amward Publications, 1988. Brief descriptions of emphases, histories, and contributions of "political action committees." Can be useful for suggesting what industries and interest groups, in and outside the district, may be important to a member of the House.
Public Interest Profiles. Washington: Congressional Quarterly / Foundation for Public Affairs, 1996/97. While every lobbying group will claim that what it wants is in the national interest, some present the public good to be their primary reason for being. This directory briefly profiles a selection of the prominent ones, including their purpose, size, principal staff, and publications, along with "third-party commentary" their political orientation, and effectiveness.
Encyclopedia of Associations. Detroit: Gale Research. Annual. Exhaustive directory of the names, purposes, organizations, and histories of associations, including interest groups, in the United States; includes one geographical index-volume. Not much "meat" to apply directly to your analysis, but a good point of departure to identify specific groups your other research has led you to expect, as well as a way of contacting them.
Political parties and interest groups of every conceivable sort in this country seems to have a web pages devoted to themselves, some friendly, some not. Cataloging all of them here would be wasteful. The trick in profiling a congressional district and member is to figure out how the general issues, opinions, goals, and resources of a national organization fit the specific character of a district or representative. See what you can find from:
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Official Congressional Directory -- [#]th Congress. US Congress. Washington: US Government Printing Office. An annual government publication containing much the same information as the Congressional Staff Directory. The biographical sketches of members are more complete than those in the Staff Directory. Also includes data on diplomatic, departmental, and judicial personnel. Maps of congressional districts.
Congressional Staff Directory. This is a very complete source of information on Congress. It is well-indexed and very easy to use. Among the information available: (1) brief biographies of all members of Congress; (2) complete lists (with addresses and phone numbers) of the personal staff of all senators and representatives, both in Washington and in the district offices; (3) committee and subcommittee assignments for all senators and representatives, with chairmanships and ranking minority memberships identified; and (4) biographical sketches of senior staff members.
The Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the US Congress, by Charles C. Francis and Jeffrey B. Trammell. Washington: Almanac of the Unelected Inc. Congressional staff may be the real powers behind the throne who use their friends and "connections" to help -- or hurt -- members of Congress, bureaucrats, and the president. Patterned loosely on the Almanac of American Politics, this recent volume profiles key members of congressional (sub)committee -- not personal -- staffs: their backgrounds, beliefs, loyalties and networks. In many respects, these people can be as influential as their elected superiors. This volume also includes one-page overviews of committees, key committee members, and important recent issues facing them. This volume tries to be timely, which means it can rapidly go out of date.
Online directories. Like the general political-news sites, and often part of them, there are various directories to members of Congress, with various degrees of historical depth, user-friendliness, and timeliness -- just because there's a good-looking site on the web, it doesn't mean it's up to date or accurate. Here are some gateways, each with its own way of doing things.
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This section emphasizes the secondary literature and finding aids to the activities of Congress and its members. It includes relevant highlights from the legislative history sources discussed in the Laws, Regulations, and Bureaucracy Resource Guide.
Congressional Practice and Procedure: A Reference, Research and Legislative Guide. Charles Tiefer. New York: Greenwood, 1989. Exhaustive discussion of the ins and outs of the rules (and exceptions) both chambers of Congress use for operating their respective chambers and doing the work of legislation and oversight. Extensive table of contents and index make this volume very handy for considering why a bill worked its way through congress one way rather than another, and for decoding the procedural language you'll encounter in speeches, debates, and hearings.
Congressional Research Service reports on legislative processes. Online versions of more than three dozen reports by Congress's own research arm, addressing more congressional activities than most people even heard of.
For a fine guide to doing legislative history, emphasizing currently available (ie, recent) online resources, see the University of Michigan Library's online Documents Center. (But note that one of the services discussed there. Lexis-Nexis [click here for background info], is available only to people in the UIUC Law and Library Schools.)
The stages in the congressional legislative process, each have their own sets of incentives and "players," and most will leave paper trails. Refresh your memory about them at
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US Code Congressional & Administrative News. St. Paul: West. Like the previous title, this series prints the texts of bills signed into law and also includes selected legislative histories, committee reports, and executive orders that are often difficult to obtain or that would require laborious searching through the government documents collection.
CCH Congressional Index. Chicago: Commerce Clearing House. Lists and indexes all public bills and resolutions of general interest and reports their progress from introduction to final disposition. Combines House and Senate indexes by subject or author of bill. This loose-leaf service is updated weekly, so the "status tables" for bills are very up-to-date. Probably the best place in print to go for identifying less known current proposed legislation and its status. But CIS/Index is easier to use ... and read.
Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. Good source for confirming your hunches about who would want a law to be written and implemented one way versus others. This is an excellent weekly magazine that provides comprehensive coverage of current congressional events, but also includes information of the other branches of national government. January issues offer such useful annual "scores" of congressional activities as attendance, party unity, presidential support, and key votes. The CQ Weekly Report has provided, since 1975, ratings of House and Senate members prepared by the several national interest groups. The indexes (subject, with special indexes for lobbyist registrations, presidential texts, committee roll call votes, among others) are very complete, conveniently printed on conspicuous yellow paper.
National Journal. A weekly newsmagazine of US government events; wide range of subjects and features; fewer statistics and more qualitative analyses than the slightly more scholarly Congressional Quarterly. Not surprisingly, it gives more attention to events off Capitol Hill than the older CQ. Standard reading for Washington "Insiders."
Roll Call. Gossipy and opinionated news and analysis, emphasizing Capitol Hill affairs, for even-further-insiders. Includes "policy briefings" by members of Congress, "news scoops," and a "Hill Directory" for members of each chamber. Sometimes, this sort of recent, day-to-day news coverage and profiling of political "players" can give an insight into their motives, goals, friends, and adversaries at earlier times and/or on different issues. Unfortunately, the "Roll Call Files" on this website do not go back very far nor very completely, so you'll have to check in regularly and keep track of what you find.
The Hill. Trying to avoid partisan or ideological biases, this weekly "newspaper for and about the US Congress," runs the occasional district and member profiles. But the website is not archived, so you will have to keep checking in to see if your member or district is mentioned.
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Legi-Slate. Produced by a subsidary of the Washington Post Company, Legi-Slate is a very powerful system for retrieving full-text of the Federal Register, congressional documents including congressional bills, legislative histories, and the Congressional Record, news services including the Washington Post, and program transcripts to the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and others. Coverage to 1979-80. Because the number of users is very restricted, in this guide we emphasize other ways of finding the same materials, but Legi-Slate is a primary tool for the professional political researcher.
CIS Congressional Universe (Congressional Universe). (lately renamed Congressional Universe). Consolidates the materials in the CIS print titles discussed throughout this guide. You can track publications, legislation, regulations, members of both chambers, and news. Has powerful search capabilities, even including an optional "controlled vocabulary" -- sort of like a traditional back-of-the-book index -- so that you can choose search terms that are most likely to coincide with ones in the legislative paper trail. Search pages include instructions and tips, and there are help pages as well. Accessible only through UIUC computer "domains."
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Presidents, bureaucrats, and members of Congress trade favors, and they all want, to one degree or another, to satisfy voters and organized interests while still doing their jobs they way they think they should.
What presidents say about policies that have localized effects, such as infrastructure bills or subsidies, may reveal something about how they "read" public and/or interest opinion in the areas affected by the policy.
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. Office of the Federal Register. Washington: US Government Printing Office. This series presents the texts of presidential speeches and remarks (including campaign speeches and debates), announcements, bill signings, veto messages, communications to Congress, executive orders and proclamations, interviews with the news media, and various other tidbits issued by the White House.
Public Papers of the Presidents. Office of the Federal Register. Washington: US Government Printing Office. Annual collection of speeches and documents, arranged chronologically, with topical appendices on orders, nominations, and the like. Beginning with the Carter administration (1977-81), the Public Papers series has included all the items in the Weekly Compilation.
Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders. Office of the Federal Register. Washington: US Government Printing Office. As the name suggests, this is a topically arranged collection of presidential orders, covering April 1945-January 1989. (For later orders, see Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which is shelved next to this Codification.)
CIS Index to Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1909. Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information Service, 1990. For historical research. Organized like the other CIS indexes: subject, name, Superintendent of Documents number, document title, agency report number. Documents are available in full text on microfiche.
Budget of the United States Government: Fiscal Year ____.
Executive Office of the President. Washington: US Government Printing Office. The President's annual budget message is issued every January and presents the administration's recommendations to Congress about spending priorities, in both qualitative and quantitative form. Often, members of Congress will change the spending plans to protect and reward interests in their districts. While the final appropriations for that fiscal year will differ from the Budget's proposals, historical data in the Budget are real, and you can track down how much was actually spent on what. Appendices allow you to track recommended funding by program type and agency.Some executive branch materials will also be available in the Congressional Record, US Code and Administrative News, and, for historical research, US Serial Set Index described elsewhere in this guide. Online, try enhanced versions of GPO Access, THOMAS, or FedWorld, described elsewhere in this guide.
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Executive departments and agencies created by Congress promulgate rules and to carry out their statutory mandates. Many also hand out subsidies, benefits (such as licenses), and punishments and thus have to decide whether person A or company B deserves one or the other. "Oversight" of agencies is a major congressional activity -- and the bureaucrats know that the members can reward or punish them for how their decisions affect voters and other interests back home.
Federal Register. Office of the Federal Register. Washington: US Government Printing Office. In a process called "notice and comment," federal agencies publish their proposed actions and in the Federal Register so that interested people and organizations can comment on them; these comments are then taken into account (in greater or lesser degrees) by the agency, which must publish its final action or rule here as well. The Register also includes executive orders, proclamations and other presidential documents. Monthly, quarterly and annual indexes. Daily issues are compiled annually in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
Code of Federal Regulations. Office of the Federal Register. Washington: US Government Printing Office. This is a codification of the general and permanent rules issued by executive and independent agencies of the federal government, including presidential orders and proclamations. (The CFR is divided into 50 "titles," each addressing a broad area subject to federal regulation. While its organizing principle is like that of the US Code, do not expect to find strict parallels between "titles" of USC and the similarly numbered ones of CFR.) Separate index volumes. CFR has its own index volumes, but the CIS Index to the Code of Federal Regulations, shelved next to the CFR, is more useful. Because regulation is an ongoing process, parts of the CFR may be out of date by the time you look there, so you must consult the accompanying List of Sections Affected, which will refer you to the appropriate statement in the Federal Register.
The Federal Register: What It is and How to Use It. Robert Fox and Ernie Sowada, eds. Office of the Federal Register. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1992. Self-explanatory title: how to make sense of the often-confusing Federal Register and CFR. Includes explanation of how to solve a sample research problem.
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"Uncle Sam -- Administrative Law. "University of Memphis. Excellent, annotated gateway to comprehensive and agency-specific regulations, decisions and rulings of two dozen agencies, and a model for citation. http://www.lib.memphis.edu/gpo/admin.htm
"Library Guides: Federal Regulations."Mansfield University. More from Larry Schankman, including links to agency sites: http://www.mnsfld.edu/depts/lib/fedregs.html
"Federal Regulations."Cornell Law Library. Excellent hypertext guide and tutorial: http://www.law.cornell.edu/library/fedregs1.html#doc
CIS Federal Register Index. Washington: Congressional Information Service, 1984-. More useful than the CFR's own indexes, in the standard, user-friendly CIS format.
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American Statistics Index. Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information Service. ASI identifies, describes, and evaluates all of the major statistical publications of the US government -- more than 500 sources. How does an agency measure the gravity of the need for its services or the grandeur of its vital services to the national interest? Statistics. There is a wealth of material in ASI, including some of the most unlikely subjects. Start with index volumes (accessed by subject, name, category, title, or report number) and then use the abstracts volumes to get a better sense of the substance of the report, then read the full publication on microfiche (cased near entrance to Docs).
Congressional Research Service Index. The CRS does background research on various topics for members of Congress. Search this index to see what sorts of things members thought were important, as well as to see what considerations entered their bill drafting, debate, and oversight.
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This section is provided for ambitious researchers who want to venture into the law library. Do not try do deal with judicial materials for a district political profile until you have done all your other research and refined your hypotheses.
Lawsuits and threats of lawsuits are a major part of the politics of policy making. Since the 1960s reapportionment cases -- how district boundaries group or separate people, why -- they have been heavily involved in the conflicts over how, where, why -- and for whom -- district boundaries are drawn. Similarly, federal courts have been called in to settle civil rights and civil liberities disputes and to resolve disputes about administrative agency decision making -- all things that reflect and shape the politics of a district and that affect persons will take up with the member. Practically speaking, for most districts, the federal district (trial-level) and circuit (intermediate appellate) courts will be more important battlegrounds than the US Supreme Court. (For official descriptions of the scope and nature of the federal judiciary, see the website of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts: http://www.uscourts.gov/understanding_courts/899_toc.htm
If you want the experience dealing with judicial materials, you might consider venturing into court opinions themelves, via case citations in the press, scholarly journals and law reviews, or through Shepard's. All appellate decisions and some trial-court decisions are printed in "reporters," in which the court's opinion will identify the parties to the case, recapitulate the arguments, and explain why it decided for one or the other side. Most likely, you'll find it more efficient to deal with secondary literature than with opinions directly.
Most of the secondary literature will deal with a relatively small number of "leading cases," so do not bet that your district or member will have been the subject of a politically relevant case, much less given more than a passing footnote's worth of attention in a law review or specialized legal reference book. Nonetheless, if you want to be thorough, you should at least look for articles dealing with the current or past members, or with the district, or possibly with some significant issue that affected it (for example, reapportionment, school desegregation, environmental protection). Even if you do not come up with an exact match for your district, discussions in the secondary literature may shed light on issues -- and legal-political strategies and tactics -- that could help you interpret the information you have already gathered.
Find the Law in the Library: A Guide to Legal Research. John Corbin. Chicago: American Library Association, 1989. Readable, topical, practical-problem-centered guide, with good overviews and lengthy bibliographies of legal resources.
Legal Research: How to Find and Understand the Law, 3d national ed. Stephen Elias and Susan Levinkind. Berkeley: Nolo, 1992. An ordinary-language handbook for legal research, directed at laymen who want to settle common ordinary legal disputes without using lawyers.
General legal online gateways list categories of legal subjects.
Cornell University Legal Information Institute. Very complete and sophisticated site reachable by gopher or a Web browser. Hypertext access to most Supreme Court opinions and to lower-court cases in selected fields, including administrative law. Also has extensive links to the US government's own gopher sites.
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books. Indexes more than 700 English-language journals in the field of law, as well as yearbooks and monographs since 1994, in the general format of the ubiquitous Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. Each volume includes a subject and author index, table of cases and current book review index.
Two professional legal encyclopedias give overviews of the law from a nationwide standpoint, pulling together across jurisdictions the way courts think about this or that issue. Their alphabetical arrangement won't do you much good -- use indexes at the end of each set. Each comes in several many-volume series. The articles exhaustively cite leading cases, especially from state courts, which may in turn point back to issues in your district.
American Law Reports are several multi-volume series of cases of general interest to the legal community followed by essays that put each into a larger legal context. Start with the "quick index," looking under as many potentially relevant keywords and topics as you can think of.
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Shepard's Acts and Cases by Popular Names, Federal and State, 2d edition. Colorado Springs, CO: Shepard's Citations, 1979, plus Supplements. An alphabetical index to federal and state acts and court cases, cited by the common names that are used in, say, press reports.
US Law Week. Washington: Bureau of National Affairs. This timely loose-leaf service has four sections: (1) opinions of the US Supreme Court; (2) summaries of selected federal and state court decisions; (3) summaries and analysis of recent statutes; (4) journal of proceedings of the Supreme Court. Decisions are received by the publisher within several days of being handed down by the Supreme Court. Excellent indexes. (Website is merely an extended ad.)
US Code Congressional & Administrative News. St. Paul: West. Like the previous title, this series prints the texts of bills signed into law and also includes selected legislative histories, committee reports, and executive orders that are often difficult to obtain or that would require laborious searching through the government documents collection.
Federal Supplement. St. Paul, MN: West. The US district courts are the trial courts, where most cases under federal law begin. Most federal trial court opinions are very rarely published (it's up to the judge); those that are will be found in Fed. Supp. and selectively in some commercially produced reporters.
Federal Reporter. St. Paul, MN: West. The federal courts of appeal (sometimes called the "circuit courts") hear cases appealed from the federal district courts, from federal administrative agencies, and from the special federal courts. Most of their opinions are reported in this series.
United States Reports. United States Supreme Court. Washington: US Government Printing Office, annual. Customarily abbreviated in legal citations simply as US, preceded by a volume number and followed by the first page of the opinion, this is the official publication of decisions of the US Supreme Court. Reports of judicial opinions are issued in three stages: (1) individual "slip opinions"; (2) preliminary print edition in paperback; and (3) the final cumulative bound volume, which is issued annually.
US Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition (customarily abbreviated "L.Ed."), Rochester, NY: Lawyers' Cooperative Publishing, and US Supreme Court Reporter ("S.Ct."), St. Paul, MN: West. L.Ed. and S.Ct. are unofficial, commercial editions reprinting (and supplementing) the contents of the official United States Reports. They add editorial comment on the pertinent points of law and are usually published sooner than the U.S. Reports. Both have subject indexes. While L.Ed. and its continuation, L.Ed. 2d, and S.Ct. are cross-referenced to the official Supreme Court reporter, volume numbering and pagination differ in all three reporters. So while legal research may be easier with these series, you must always cite to U.S. Reports as well as to whichever commercially produced version you used.
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These sources are listed in the order corresponding to their creation in the policy-making process.
Bills are given numbers when they are introduced, and knowing the numbers is important for tracing the history of legislation or policy.
Congressional Hearings are held to gather information for legislative and oversight, as well as to publicize issues and members.
Identify hearings via
These will generally refer you to Docs fiches.
Docs hearings card catalog covers hearings in the stacks, 1885-1979; it is arranged by Congress, chamber, committee, and title.
Legi-Slate and Congressional Universe (Congressional Universe) give full-text retrieval, but with restricted access and limited historical coverage.
Committee Prints are special research reports as background for legislation. These can provide current, historical, and/or statistical analyses of events, issues, or policies
Prints can be identified via
and found in Docs fiches.
Legi-Slate and Congressional Universe (Congressional Universe) give full-text retrieval, but with restricted access and limited historical coverage.
Committee reports (including conference committee reports) include texts of bills (which may have been amended) along with the evidence and reasoning the committee used. Almost always, a committee will report out only bills i t recommends for passage.
Reports can be identified via
and found in Docs fiches.
Legi-Slate and Congressional Universe (Congressional Universe) give full-text retrieval, but with restricted access and limited historical coverage.
House and Senate floor debates are reported in the Congressional Record. Washington: US Government Printing Office. This is the daily stenographic record (sort of...) of the proceedings of Congress from the 43rd Congress, 1873, to date. Also includes annual messages of the president to Congress, the presidential inaugural address, and speeches and other matter not actually spoken to Congress but which members have inserted anyway "for the record." Texts of bills and resolutions are not usually reported in the Congressional Record. Before you plunge into the debates, look at the Daily Digest section of each issue, where you can find summaries of committee as well as floor actions and (on the last day of the week) agendas of the following week. A biweekly index covers the daily issues, an annual index get you into the official, annual version of the Record. (The pagination differs between the daily and the annual, so be use you use the appropriate index for the version you want.) The biweekly index includes a section on the "History of Bills and Resolutions." For 1954- 1967 the appendices to the Congressional Record were not included in the permanent edition, but are available separately.
Votes. Roll call votes are recorded in various places, with different degrees of comprehensiveness and historical depth
Signing or veto messages, other communications with Congress and the nation are published in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and, depending on their nature, the Federal Register.
Then they are published in Public Papers of the Presidents.
Agencies publish proposed actions (whether regulations or quasi-judicial hearings) in the daily Federal Register.
Twice a year, they must publish a "Unified Agenda (Semiannual Regulatory Agenda)," describing regulatory actions they are developing or have recently completed. The agendas are published in the Federal Register, usually during April and October each year, as part of the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.
Final versions of general and permanent rules, along with presidential orders and proclamations, are codified and published in the Code of Federal Regulations.
And many of an agency's other publications will be indexed in the Monthly Catalog.
Federal cases start in the US District Courts (and in some specialized federal courts on questions of military law, taxes, patents, and claims against the US). Their opinions are rarely published -- it's up to the judge -- but if they are, they may be found in the Federal Supplement.
Appeals will be made in the US Courts of Appeal (sometimes called the circuit courts), either in the regional circuit where the agency action occurred or in the District of Columbia Circuit. Moreover, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit hears appeals from specialized federal trial courts and a few others, generally dealing with adminsitration. Court opinions are published in the Federal Reporter
If the Supreme Court decides to accept the case, it (ans some commercial publishers) will publish its opinions in
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Throughout, this guide has listed electronic addresses for government and government-related sources online. The Net is so dynamic that no list can be complete. Here, however, are some sites offering many links that political science students have used fruitfully. This list does not include links to the many online newspapers, magazines, or "current awareness" sources you can find on the Net. As you look at news reports on the Web, some of which is reputable, some fraudulent, always remember: "consider the source."
"Poly-Cy." From the political scientists at the University of West Virginia, a site that is both large and well organized, even includes political science humor.
LSU political science site. An extremely large, pretty well organized collection of resources from Louisiana State University.
University of Michigan Documents Center. More from the good folks in Ann Arbor.
Political Resources Webpage at the University of Keele. A British site with good links on American politics and various political science subfields, as well as links to political documents and data from the rest of the world.
"CQ's American Voter." General access to political news and information about American politics, from Congressional Quarterly, Inc., with a breezy, sardonic tone. Many interesting links, but not updated since spring 1997:
American Political Science Association. Sponsored by this country's chief scholarly organization in the study of politics, so it includes access points to subjects other than American politics and law. The APSA website is good for information about the APSA but not about politics or government.
1. Starting points
2. General guides to Congress-related resources (see also the Laws, Regulation, and Bureaucracy Resource Guide):
3. Demographic and economic data sources relating to congressional districts
4. Electoral and political information
5. Biographies and directories to Capitol Hill
6. What members of Congress do (For more detail, see the Laws, Regulations, Bureaucracy Guide.)
7. Executive actions and explanations relating to Congress
8. Judicial sources: courts as battlegrounds for district identity and control.
9. A recapitulation or digest of the legislative paper trail and where to pick it up in the UIUC libraries
10. General Internet sources about politics, American politics and policy
11. Pencek's suggestions for sketching the political portrait of a district and its member.
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University of Illinois Libraries
University of IllinoisCreated on 3/3/98; last modified 1/19/00
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/doc/classes/ps315/dist-bib.htm
Comments to Mary Mallory, Head
The guide was created by Bruce Pencek (pencek@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu) as part of a study of techniques integrating library instruction into the curriculum. He was graduated from the MS/LIS program of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 1998. Pencek was formerly a member of the political science and public administration faculties of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, among other institutions. His PhD is from Cornell University, where he began developing this bibliography and set of topics, based on his work with Theodore J. Lowi.
This guide is copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998 by Bruce Pencek. Permission is granted for nonprofit, educational distribution, provided that this file remain intact, including this statement.