Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources

Publication Date: January 2005

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Abstract:

By using a variety of basic printed, online, and telephone sources, constituents can track federal legislation and regulations at the local level. Those who prefer weekly overviews would be interested in such publications as CQ Weekly, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News and World Report. For daily coverage, helpful printed sources are the Congressional Record, CQ Today (formerly CQ Daily Monitor), the Federal Register, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. Databases such as THOMAS, GPO Access, the websites of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, LexisNexis, and WESTLAW would also be useful.

The Code of Federal Regulations, the Index to the Code of Federal Regulations, and the CIS/Index to Publications of the United States Congress provide access by subject to regulatory and legislative publications. Telephone sources such as Capitol Hill’s bill status office, the White House’s office of the executive clerk, and the office of the Federal Register can give brief information on legislative and regulatory developments too new to have been captured by standard online or printed sources. Capsule descriptions of directories and other media sources are provided, as is a bibliography. Annotations for each source contain publisher contact information. This report will be updated yearly.