Alcove 9: An Annotated List of Reference Websites

U.S. Government, Politics, and Law: Congress

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
This searchable version of the Biographical Directory of the American Congress (Library of Congress call number JK1030.B56) contains information on both present and former members of Congress. In addition to complete biographical information, there are sections giving information on research collections, bibliographical citations, and pages for histories of both the House and the Senate. The House historical pages contain descriptions of the House chambers, historical facts about the House of Representatives, and doing Congressional archive research to name only a few. Links are provided to related Library of Congress and National Archives and Records Administration sites. The Senate historical pages contain information on how the Senate works, history of the Senate, oral histories from former Senators and their staff, and historical essays by the Senate Historian. Entries can be searched by name, state, and position (Senator, Representative, Speaker of the House, etc.). The database is not browseable; terms must be typed into the search engine for any entries to be viewed. Web version developed by the Senate Historical Office and the Legislative Resource Center of the House of Representatives.

Congressional Directory
This section of the Government Printing Office web site has the complete text of the Congressional Directory. In addition to the most recent edition, previous editions (back to the 105th Congress, 1997-1998) are also available. The text is provided in both ASCII and PDF formats. In addition to biographical information about each member of Congress, names, addresses, and telephone numbers for both their Washington and home state offices are provided. When available, the website for each Congressional member is given. There is also information on committee assignments, sessions of Congress, Congressional districts, and both the executive and judicial branches of the U.S. government.

Thomas
This legislative web site of the Library of Congress contains much useful information about Congress. In addition to a large amount of material on current legislation being considered in both the House and the Senate, Thomas contains retrospective legislative information back to the 104th Congress (1995). Topics covered include House floor, bill summary and status, bill text, major legislation, public laws by law number, and House & Senate roll call votes. The full text of the Congressional Record back to the 101st Congress (1989) with an index back to the 103rd Congress, 2nd session (1994). Committee information covers reports back to the 104th Congress (1995). Other sections include Congress in the news, House and Senate directories, Congressional Internet servers, the legislative process, and historic documents.

U.S. House of Representatives
This web guide provides links to House office web sites in addition to giving information on the current week on the House floor, roll call votes, House committee hearing schedules, and full text of the U.S. Code. Links are also given to educational and government sites. Access to the Library of Congress Thomas web site is available.

U.S. Senate
Information is given here about both on-going and historical happenings in the Senate. Topics covered include committee hearing schedules, Senate floor activities, contacting Senators, daily Senate calendar, and an inaugural web site. One can search the 106th Congress for bills by key word and bill number.