Bills and resolutions are proposed laws or resolutions as introduced in Congress. Bills are the most common; resolutions are designated H. Res. or S. Res., and they concern only the business or sentiments of a single house. A bill provides information on the original intent and language of its sponsor as well as evidence of deliberate exclusions and inclusions in the bill.

Concurrent resolutions are used for matters effecting both houses.

Acts are bills that have been passed into law.

Hearings contain oral testimony and written materials submitted to committees of Congress. Hearings can be used to illustrate that certain issues and considerations were made known to Congress through the hearing process. Hearings are an early step in the legislative process. Hearings are not held for all bills. Neither are all hearings published. For those which are published, there can often be a lengthy delay before publication. Some information from hearings is available electronically, but this is usually only the pre-submitted statements, not the verbal questions and answers from the hearing.

Committee prints are documents requested by committees which are compiled by their research staffs or the Congressional Research Service FOR the Committee. They are used for background information and can be research studies, compilations of materials or statutes, legislative histories, background information, or working drafts of a bill. Committee prints are not automatically published or distributed.

Committee reports are written BY the committee for the House or Senate. When a committee sends a bill to the floor, it is accompanied by a written report justifying its action. It explains the purpose and scope of the bill.

Congressional publications in LexisNexis include:

Selected Testimony Transcripts and Submitted Statements (since 1988); Published Hearings Abstracts and Indexing since 1970; and Published Hearings indexing from 1833-1969.

Committee Prints Abstracts and Indexing (since 1970); Committee Prints Indexing (1830-1969); Committee Prints Selected Full Text (1993-2004).

Committee Reports Abstracts and Indexing (since 1970); Committee Reports Indexing (1789-1969 see Serial Set); and Committee Reports Full Text (since 1990).

House and Senate Documents Abstracts and Indexing (since 1970); House and Senate Documents Indexing (1789-1969 see Serial Set); House and Senate Documents Indexing and Searchable PDFs (1789-1969 see Serial Set); House and Senate Documents Full Text (1995 but not complete).

Congressional Record (since 1985).

U.S. Serial Set Digital Collection: Indexing and searchable PDFs (1789 -1969).

Additional features include member directories and campaign contributions, a guide to creating citations, and two periodicals, The Hill, a weekly newspaper, covering the actions of Congress and Roll Call, a semi-weekly newspaper covering people, politics, and process of Congress.

Document Custodian: Sally Haines  Last revised: 4 December 2007