Congress


By now you should have a sense of what citizens want, or are said to want, from government in three areas of public policy. The task for the next four weeks is to find out how the various parts of government respond to these demands.

You should also try the News media for some ideas as to the names of pending legislation on particularly "hot" topics. Public interest groups tend to keep tabs on what is going on in government on their issues. Try those websites for information as well.

Use the resources below to research what legislative activity (not just bills) is pending in Congress that relate to your political issues.

  • What kinds of activity does Congress use in making policy? Laws require hearings by committees, and debates on the floor. For this week find out if any hearings are or have recently been held on your topics. Has there been or is there scheduled debate?
  • If you find laws have been proposed try to find out their names and bill numbers. See if you can find out any information on these bills by emailing the sponsors.
Thomas (this is the best: search by topics)
This site has a good search engine. If you havn't found any bills names to look up through your research then use the search engine. Type in your topic (e.g. air pollution) and you'll get Chatroom to what is happening in Congress
House of Representatives
Once again, you have a search engine that excepts topis. It seems kind of slow
US Senate
This is a good site for browsing once you have some information at hand. Use newspapers and other easy sources of information to begin finding out who is proposing what in our Congress. Once you have bill numbers or sponsor names you can start to find out more details. This site does not have a search engine.
Congressional Budget Office
 
Welcome to the home of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory

The Hill: the Newspaper for and About Congress

RollCall, another Capital Hill Newspaper

C-Span site,

FedGate Congress links

SMU links to Congress

CongressLink

Project Vote-Smart Congress page

Open Secrets Congress page

Maps about Congressional Districts

Committee System