LLSDC's Legislative Source Book

Research Guides and Explanations

• Drafting Federal Law by Donald Hirsch, 2d Ed., 1989, GPO (122 p. - PDF)

• Federal Administrative Law: A Brief Overview by Rick McKinney, 2024 (HTML & PDF, 2018 4 p.)

• Federal Legislative History 101 by Rick McKinney, 2017 (16 p. - PDF)

• Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent by Rick McKinney and Ellen Sweet, 2019 (HTML)

• House Legislative Counsel's Manual on Drafting Style, 1995, (76 p. - PDF)

• Legislative History Research for Beginning Practitioners, by Sue Ann Orsini, 2013 (HTML)

• An Overview of the Congressional Record and Its Predecessor Publications: A Research Guide by Rick McKinney, 2020 (HTML)

• An Overview of the Development of U.S. Congressional Committees by Michael Welsh, 2008 (21 p.)  with a 2016 Revision by Jeff Bird (22 p.)

• An Overview of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set by Rick McKinney, 2021 (HTML)

• Questions and Answers in Legislative and Regulatory Research, 2014 (21 p. - PDF)

• A Research Guide to the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations by Rick McKinney, 2019 (HTML) (13 p. - PDF, 2016)

• United States Statutes and the United States Code: Historical Outlines, Notes, Lists, Tables, and Sources - A Federal Research Guide by Rick McKinney, 2020 (in HTML with PDF docs)

Resource Lists and Links

• Common Abbreviations and Legal Citation Examples for Selected Federal Government Documents (2017, 6 p. - PDF)

• Directory of Federal Law Libraries in the D.C. Metropolitan Area (2008-2017, 38 p. - PDF) (Update)

• Executive Orders and Other Presidential Documents: Sources and Explanations, 2019 (HTML)

• Federal Administrative Law: A Brief Overview by Rick McKinney, 2023 (HTML & PDF, 4 p.)

• Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws, Cases, and Resources, 2019 (HTML)

• Freedom of Information Act Resources, 2020 (HTML)

• General Legal Research Sites - Free and Commercial, 2020 (HTML)

• Laws, Policies and Performance Measures Relating to Federal Agency Web Sites, 2015 (HTML)

• Laws and Links Related to General Federal Agency Operations, 2016 (HTML)

• Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws on the Internet: Free Sources, 2018 (HTML)

• Legislative Histories of U.S. Laws on the Internet: Commercial Sources, 2018 (HTML)

• Quick Links and Sources to U.S. Court Opinions, 2020 (HTML)

• Quick Link Sources to House and Senate Committee Hearings and Other Publications, 2020 (HTML)

• Selected Congressional Research Service Reports on Congress and Its Procedures, 2019 (HTML)
  (also links to all Major Repositories of CRS Reports: Free and Commercial)

• Selected Telephone Numbers and Web Sites With Useful Legislative Information, 2015 (HTML)

• Sources and Tools to the Code of Federal Regulations, 2019 (HTML) 

• Sources and Tools to the Federal Register, 2019 (HTML) 

• Sources for Finding Mandated Reports to Congress by U.S. Federal Agencies, 2018 (HTML)

• Sources for the Congressional Record: Free and Commercial, 2019 (HTML) 

• Sources for the Text of Congressional Bills and Resolutions, 1789 to Present (2016, HTML)
  

• Standing Committees of Congress: 1789 to Present, (2015, 10 p. - PDF)

• State Legislatures, State Laws and State Regulations: Website Links & Telephone Numbers, 2021

• U.S. Code and Statutes - Electronic Sources, 2019 (HTML)

Tables of Information

• Federal Register Pages Published Annually, (2021, 1 p. - PDF)

• Final House Calendars (from 1901) & Resume of Congressional Activity (from 1948) & More Info.

• Schedule of Volumes of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set: 1970 to Current (2017, HTML)

• Sessions of Congress with Corresponding Debate Record Volume Numbers, 1789 to Cur. (13 p. - PDF)

• Statistical Information, 2018 (link to Cong. Directory sec. on historical stats on Congress, 29 p. - PDF)

• Table of Congressional and Federal Register Volumes, 1932 to Present (2021, 3 p. - PDF)

• Table of Congressional Publication Volumes and Presidential Issuances, 2021 to 1789, 3 p.

• U.S. Code Tables, 2020 (current links to Office of the Law Revision Counsel & others)

Other Legislative Publications

• Legislative SIS Directory and Source Book, 1992 (PDF, out of print in paper)

• Union List of Legislative Documents, 1994, 3rd Edition (PDF, out of print in paper)

• Union List of Legislative Histories, 2000, 7th Ed. with 2002 supp. (members only - information)

• Festschrift in Honor of Rick McKinney, 2016 (PDF, still in print in paper)

The Legislative Source Book is a project of LLSDC's Legislative Research Special Interest Section. It was first begun as a printed spiral-bound book in 1992 and was launched as an Internet product in the year 2000 (see the Internet Archive or the Library of Congress collection of Archived Web Sites from 2010 as well as a PERMA.CC capture in 2016). We welcome suggested additions, corrections and updates. Members of the Source Book Subcommittee include Tomasz Kolodziej (Chair), Legislative Analyst, Hogan Lovells US LLP; Rick McKinney, retired Federal law librarian; Ellen Sweet, Legislative Reference Specialist, Tax Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Jeffrey Bird, Legislative Librarian, Latham & Watkins, LLP; Sue Ann Orsini, Legislative Research Librarian, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, LLP; and Susan Pries, Director of Library and Research Services, VanNess Feldman LLP; all of Washington, D.C.

Please email your questions or comments to the Legislative SIS.

Last updated on July 30, 2024.