Journal Subciting Guide: Finding Government Documents

The bulk of legal materials produced by the Federal and State governments of the United States, including the legislature, the courts, and administrative agencies, is available through a number of free databases and governmental websites.

• Executive Branch: Executive Orders of the President and State Governors, Administrative Agency Decisions, Regulations in the CFR and State Administrative Codes
• Legislative History including bill drafts, signing statements, committee reports, staff analyses, and mroe in both Federal and State Law
• Case Law and Agency decisions

Congressional Documents

Federal Legislative history is relatively easy to locate. We have two commercial databases, ProQuest Congressional and ProQuest Legislative Insight. Use Congressional to locate specific Federal congressional record citations and use Insight to find legislative history materials for specific enacted federal legislation.

Federal Statutes and other Official Government Publishing Office materials

The United States Government Publishing Office (GPO) maintains a website called Govinfo.gov which allows you to locate official sources of Federal materials including:

• Bills from 1993-present
• Public Presidential Papers, including Executive Orders
• the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) from 1996 to Present: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/CFR
• the United States Code (U.S.C) from 1994-present: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/USCODE
• the Federal Register (Fed. Reg.): https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/FR
• the Congressional Record (Cong., Rec.): https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb

If Govinfo.gov does not contain the date range you are looking for, check HeinOnline.