controlled time - When a unanimous consent agreement limits the time for debate on a bill or other measure and places it under the control of bill floor managers, the time is said to be controlled. Each manager then allows any senator to participate in debate by yielding a specified amount of time to the senator.
Congressional Sessions lists all Congresses and corresponding years - from 1789, when the 1st Congress met, through the current Congress.
You can access legislative information, by bill number or key words, from the THOMAS Web site. Information from the present back to the 93rd Congress (1973) is available on THOMAS.
For information on the Senate, Congress, the legislative process and the federal government, the Virtual Reference Desk is a good place to begin.