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U.S. Government Publications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison : Congressional Publications

How to find U.S. government publications at University of Wisconsin-Madison libraries.

Basics

Congressional publications include:

  • hearings
  • reports and documents
  • bills and resolutions
  • roll call votes
  • laws

To locate a particular title, search the UW-Madison libraries catalog. Because records for many publications will not be found in the catalog, check the following databases or contact a librarian for more assistance.

Many of these databases require that you search or browse by Congress and Session number. In order to locate the number of the Congress and Session for a particular year, see this page provided by the U.S. Senate.

Databases with full text of Congressional Publications

ProQuest Congressional a.k.a. Congressional Publications (U.S.)

  • Available for use in campus libraries, or off-campus use by UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.
  • Provides access to
    • Committee prints and miscellaneous publications (1830-present)
    • Congressional Record and predecessors (1789-1997)
    • Hearings (1824-present)
    • House and Senate documents and reports (1817-present)
    • Legislative histories (1969-present)
    • Serial Set maps (1789-present)
    • Serial Set (1789-2003)
  • Help available from ProQuest's guide to Congressional

 

Gov Info (US Government Publishing Office)

  • Provides free public access to full text of Congressional
    • bills (1993-present)
    • calendars (1995-present)
    • committee prints (1975-76;1989-present)
    • directories (1997-present)
    • documents (1975-76; 1979-80; 1985-90;1993-present)
    • hearings (1957-82; 1985-88; 1991-present)
    • Congressional Record daily edition (1994 to present), bound edition (1873-present) and Record index (1983-present)
    • reports (1995-present)
    • history of bills (1983-present)
    • House rules and manuals (1995-present)
    • Senate manual (1995-2014)
    • Journal of the House (1992-2017)
    • Journal of the Senate (108th through 115th Congresses)
    • Statutes at Large (1951-2012)
  • Select one or more of the above collections in the "Refine by collection" box in the advanced search to search just those collections. .
  • Help section

 

Congress.gov (replacing Thomas)

  • Provides free public access to full text of Congressional
    • bills (1993-present)
    • bill summary and status information (1973-present)
    • Congressional Record daily edition(1995-present)
    • Presidential nominations (1981-present)
    • treaties (1995-present) 
    • committee reports (1995-present)
    • committee hearings and meetings (House video) (2012-present)
    • public laws (1973-present)
    • roll call votes (1989-present)
  • See Coverage Dates for Legislative Information for more details on when different kinds of publications are posted
  • Help section has a variety of guides and tutorials

Federal Depository Library Program

As part of the Federal Depository Library Program, the UW-Madison Libraries make U.S. government publications available to the public at no fee.

Get Congressional Publications Help

Contact Nancy Mulhern at the Wisconsin Historical Society

OR

The UW-Madison Law Library.

Ask a Librarian

 

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