U.S. Government Documents: Bills

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

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.

Proquest 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 1824 forward), documents (full-text 1789 forward), reports (full-text 1789 forward), committee prints (selective full-text 1824 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. The Library of Congress has digitized House bills for the 6th-42nd Congress (1799-1873), Senate bills from the 16th-42nd Congress (1819-1873), and Senate joint resolutions from the 18th-42nd Congress (1824-1873). The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) also has the 1st-72 Congress (1789-1933) on microfilm and these can be borrowed through ILL.
• 71st-95th Congress (1929-1978):  not held by Princeton or Rutgers. CRL has most of this period in print or microform (with some minor gaps). The text of some bills may also be found in the Congressional Record or at beginning of a hearing.
• 96th-106th Congress:  on microfiche, located on A floor in Firestone Library (A-7-J) 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 Firestone stacks at KF49 .S952.
• 103rd Congress to date: Full text available from FDsys
• Full text of bills from the 101st Congress to date (1989- ) can be searched and obtained via  Proquest 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 Proquest 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.