The Legislative Branch was established by Article I of the Constitution to pass laws. Congress is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and both generate a variety of documents. Agencies that are mandated to support Congress in some way, such as the Library of Congress and the GPO, are also part of the Legislative branch.
Important legislative documents include:
- Legislative texts
- U.S. Code
- The official codification of legislation passed by Congress. The U.S. Code does not include regulations, judicial decisions, executive orders, or treaties. It is organized into 53 "Titles" by subject matter, but divisions with in a Title may be unique. Main editions are released every six years, with yearly supplements in the interim.
- Congressional Record
- Essentially the "minutes" of Congressional meetings. Released daily as well as in a yearly collected edition. If you are looking up a specific citation in the Record, pay attention to if the page numbers are preceded by "S", "H", "E", or "D." These will be a location in the daily record, while pages with no letter before them will be found in a yearly collected record.
- House and Senate Journals
- Unlike the Congressional Record, the Journals do not record debate but only the outcomes of the meeting each day. It is mandated by the Constitution and served as the main record of Congressional proceedings from 1789 to 1873, but is now often of less interest than the Congressional Record.
- Committee Reports
- Reports may accompany a legislative measure when a committee sends it to the full chamber, result from an investigation in the course of Congress' oversight activities, or report on a committee's activity at the conclusion of a Congress or the activity of a conference committee. The Senate can also report on treaties and nominations.
- Congressional Hearings
- A meeting of a committee, the House or Senate, or a joint session to obtain information. Published records of hearings are usually released at least two months after it takes place. These may be available from the GPO or from the body that conducted the hearing's website.
- Roll Call Votes
- Some Congressional votes are conducted only by voice vote, but many are roll call votes and the votes of individual members are recorded. These are printed in the Congressional Record and (since 1989) available on the House and Senate websites.
