U.S. Government Documents 

CQ Congress Collection (Princeton faculty, students and staff only)

Includes bill text (full-text 1995 forward), floor votes, bill comparison, and various customizable bill and vote reports.

FDsys

Government information currently available on GPO Access is in the process of being migrated to this web site. Migration to this site will be completed in 2009.

GPO Access

Includes bills (full-text 1993 forward), history of bills, calendars, documents & reports (full-text 1995 forward), Congressional Record and its Index, public laws (full-text 1994 forward), the U.S. Code, Congressional Directory, and a history of line item veto notices.

Lexis-Nexis Congressional (Princeton faculty, students and staff only)

Includes the Congressional Record, bills and bill tracking (full-text 1989 forward), legislative histories, public laws (full-text 1988 forward), hearings (full-text of 30-40% from 1988 forward), documents (full-text 1995 forward), reports (full-text 1990 forward), committee prints (selective full-text 1995 forward), biographical, financial and voting information for members of Congress.

THOMAS

Find bill texts and legislative histories from 1973 to the present.

The work of Congress is initiated by the introduction of a proposal in one of four forms: the bill, the joint resolution, the concurrent resolution, and the simple resolution. A bill is the form customarily used in both houses for most legislation.

• 1st-70th Congress (1789-1928):  CIS microfiche collection, Alexander Library at Rutgers University
  
• 71st-95th Congress (1929-1978):  not held by Princeton or Rutgers. The text of some bills may be found in the Congressional Record or at beginning of a hearing
• 96th-106th Congress:  on microfiche, located on C floor in Firestone Library (C-16-F) shelved at the end of the GPO (Depository) microfiche collection. To obtain the fiche number on which a bill appears, consult the Cumulative Finding Aid, House and Senate Bills shelved in the Social Science Reference Center at KF49 .S952.
• 103rd Congress to date:  GPO Access
• Full text of bills from the 101st Congress to date (1989- ) can be searched and obtained via Lexis-Nexis Congressional and  THOMAS. Basic information on bills from earlier Congresses can also be found here.
• Full text of bills from the 100th Congress to date (1987- ) can be searched and obtained via CQ Press Congress Collection 

The general public is welcome to use depository materials free of charge. For access information and hours, please consult the the online hours (choose "Firestone Library - Depository Access" from the drop down menu), Access Information Page, and the Firestone Access Office. 

PLEASE NOTE:  While the general public is welcome to use depository materials free of charge, many of our U.S. Government resources, including many of the resources listed in this research guide, are not depository materials and may only be used by Princeton University students, faculty, and staff.  This includes most of the electronic resources such as Lexis Congressional and Hein Online.

Princeton University Library adheres to the following policies set by the Goverment Printing Office: FDLP Internet Use Policy Guidelines and Depository Library Public Service Guidelines for Government Information in Electronic Formats.