Using LexisNexis® Congressional

• Connecting
• Choosing a Category: Congressional Publications | Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws | Members & Committees | Regulations | Congressional Record & Rules | Political News/Hot Topics
  
• Entering a Search Request
• Viewing the Results of a Search
• Printing, Downloading, or E-Mailing
• Frequently Asked Questions

Connecting

If you are on a UNT campus or using a UNT Internet service, follow these steps to access the database.

1. Log into the UNT Libraries Home page at <http://www.library.unt.edu>.
2. Select Electronic Resources.
3. Select L under “Browse Abstract and Index Database titles alphabetically:”
4. Scroll down and select LexisNexis Congressional.

If you are not using a UNT Internet service and would like to access this database from off-campus, see our How to Access Electronic Resources page for instructions.

Choosing a Category

Select a category from the six listed on the LexisNexis Congressional homepage, then select a form from the menu in the margin or from the tabs in the middle of the page. A search form related to the category you have chosen will appear, with fields suited to that category. Most search forms include a place to enter search terms, a place to select sources, and a place to specify a date or a range of dates. They may contain other fields, depending on the source.

Congressional Publications

This is the default page for LexisNexis Congressional. Use the search forms to access a wide variety of congressional publications. Access to the full text of publications indexed in this database is governed by your institution's purchases and subscriptions. If you don't have access to the full text, you will only be able to search the metadata for a particular publication. You can then use this data to find the publication in your library.

The following congressional publications can be searched in this category:

Committee Hearings (1824–current)

Committees hold hearings to gather opinions and information to help committee members make up their minds regarding proposed legislation or to help them fulfill their responsibilities for oversight and investigation.

Committee Prints (1830–current)

These were originally printed versions of a committee’s internal working papers, but now include all kinds of publications approved and issued by committees or portions of committees, such as majority or minority staff. They include research papers, rules and calendars, transcripts of meetings, compilations of laws, and analyses of proposed legislation.

House and Senate Documents (1817–current)

These are issued by a committee or by the full chamber and are designated “H. Doc.” or “S. Doc.” They are contained in the Serial Set. They include presidential messages proposing new legislation or vetoing legislation passed by Congress; special reports of executive branch agencies; congressional committee activity reports; committee-sponsored special studies and background information published as official documents rather than committee prints; annual reports of certain patriotic and veterans groups; memorial tributes; and compilations of background information related to annual intercollegiate and high school debate topics.

House and Senate Reports (1819–current for House; 1847–current for Senate)

These are the official announcements of a committee’s findings and recommendations regarding proposed legislation. They can contain discussions of legislative intent, a short history of a bill, and comparisons of current and proposed law text. Reports are assigned separate sequential numbers within each Chamber (e.g., H. Rpt. 99-1, S. Rpt. 99-1). Since 1969 (91st Congress) the assigned number has included the Congress number as an intrinsic part of the report number. The House began its numbered report series in 1819, and the Senate began its numbered report series in 1847. House and Senate reports are included in the Serial Set.

Senate Executive Reports (1845–current)

These are recommendations of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations concerning the ratification of a proposed treaty, or recommendations of various Senate committees regarding nominations of individuals. Since 1979 (96th Congress) Senate executive reports have been included in the Serial Set.

Senate Treaty Documents

Contain the text of a treaty and the president’s message requesting that it be ratified by the Senate. Numbered consecutively from the 1st Session through the 2d Session of a Congress. Prior to the 97th Congress (1980) known as Executive (Lettered) Documents, and identified by letters of the alphabet.

Legislative Histories (1969–current)

CIS Index legislative histories enable users to trace the development of a public law from its early consideration to its enactment, including development that spans more than one Congress. Each legislative history contains an abstract of the public law, bibliographic citations (title, date, collation, CIS Accession number, and Statutes at Large citation), and controlled vocabulary subject indexing. For Legislative histories from 1998 (106th Congress) to the present, the following categories of publications are cited in each history to which they relate: slip law; enacted bill; related bills; debate; committee reports, hearings, and prints; House and Senate documents; and other information, including citations to presidential statements.

U.S. Serial Set (1789–current)

This is a collection of U.S. Government publications compiled under directive of the Congress. It contains comprehensive and often detailed information on an extremely wide range of subjects. Currently, the Serial Set includes House and Senate documents and reports, Senate executive reports, and Senate treaty documents. For a complete description of Serial Set content, see U.S. Serial Set: Types of Publications.

Basic Search Form

Use the Basic Search form to perform keyword searches on congressional publication metadata records. Basic Search does not search the full text of the resources—it only searches abstracts, titles, indexing information, and other bibliographic data.

Practice the following scenarios to become proficient in using the Basic Search form: Novice User | Intermediate User | Advanced User

Advanced Search Form

Use the Advanced Search form to perform simple keyword searches, or use Advanced Search options to further refine your search. Advanced Search options allow you to specify the publication resource (e.g., hearings, House and Senate documents, legislative histories) and document segment (e.g., title, subject, full text) to be searched.

Practice the following scenarios to become proficient in using the Advanced Search form: Novice User | Intermediate User | Advanced User

Search by Number Form

Use the Search by Number form when you know the citation for the publication you want to retrieve.

Practice the following scenarios to become proficient in using the Search by Number form: Novice User | Intermediate User | Advanced User

Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws

This category contains the following types of publications. Together, these resources can help you build a strong perspective on any topic or issue:

Bills and Resolutions

A bill is a legislative proposal brought before Congress in either the House or the Senate. Bills introduced in the House are assigned sequential numbers in the order in which they are introduced and are preceded by "H.R.". Bills introduced in the Senate are assigned sequential numbers preceded by "S.".

A joint resolution (H.J. Res. or S.J. Res.) is a legislative proposal that requires the approval of both Chambers and the signature of the President, just as a bill does, in order to have the force of law. There is little practical difference between bills and joint resolutions, although only a joint resolution may be used to propose amendments to the Constitution. In the case of a constitutional amendment, the signature of the president is not required, but three-quarters of the states must ratify the proposed amendment before it can become part of the Constitution.

A concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. or S. Con. Res.) is a proposal that requires the approval of both chambers, but does not have the force of law and does not require the signature of the president. Concurrent resolutions are usually introduced to make or amend rules that affect the operations of both chambers or to express the sentiment of both chambers.

A simple resolution (H. Res. or S. Res.) is a proposal that addresses matters entirely within the prerogative of one Chamber or the other. It requires neither the approval of the other chamber nor the signature of the president, and it does not have the force of law. Simple resolutions concern the rules of one chamber or express the sentiments of a single chamber.

Bill Tracking Reports

This provide information for following the status of a pending bill, including the date introduced, last action, sponsors, a list of major actions, and a bill digest and summary.

Legislative Histories

CIS Index legislative histories enable users to trace the development of a public law from its early consideration to its enactment, including development that spans more than one Congress. Each legislative history contains an abstract of the public law, bibliographic citations (title, date, collation, CIS Accession number, and Statutes at Large citation), and controlled vocabulary subject indexing. For Legislative histories from 1998 (106th Congress) to the present, the following categories of publications are cited in each history to which they relate: slip law; enacted bill; related bills; debate; committee reports, hearings, and prints; House and Senate documents; and other information, including citations to presidential statements.

Voting Records

These contain information on how each member of the current Congress has voted on a particular bill.

Public Laws

These are bills that have been enacted into law by Congress and either signed by the president, left to become law without a signature, or passed by Congress by overriding the president's veto. Public laws are numbered sequentially, starting over with each congress. For example, the fifth public law passed by the 98th Congress would be “Pub.L. 98-5.” They are published in the Statutes at Large in sequential order, and can be cited by the volume and page number where they appear in that publication. For example, 112 Stat. 3280 refers to the public law that appears on page 3280 of volume 112 of the Statutes at Large.

Statutes at Large

This is the official compilation of all public and private laws and resolutions passed by Congress, listed in order by date of enactment. United States Statutes at Large was published by Little, Brown and Co., a private firm, from 1845–1873, and has been published by the GPO since 1874. Each bound volume republishes the public and private slip laws enacted during the Congress, as well as concurrent resolutions passed by the Congress, Presidential proclamations, and various lists and indexes. In general, a citation to Statutes at Large law indicates the volume and page number. For example, 112 Stat. 3280 refers to the public law that appears on page 3280 of volume 112 of the Statutes at Large. Numbering of the Statutes at Large volumes is consecutive, but has no relationship to numbers of Congress.

U.S. Code

This publication contains all statutes of the United States that are currently in force. They are arranged into fifty broad subject-oriented divisions called titles. Each title is divided into several chapters, and each chapter is divided into several sections, but the sections are numbered continuously from the beginning to the end of each title. A citation usually consists of the title number and the section number.

Keyword Search Form

Use the Keyword Search form to perform keyword searches on the text of the resources.

Practice the following scenario to become proficient in using the Keyword Search form: Novice User

Get a Document Form

Use the Get a Document form to retrieve a resource when you know its citation.

Practice the following scenarios to become proficient in using the Get a Document form: Intermediate User | Advanced User

Members & Committees

This category contains information about the current members of Congress.

Member Records Search Form

Use the Member Records Search form to retrieve a current member’s bill sponsorships, voting record, financial disclosure statements, campaign contributors, and general biographical information.

Practice the following scenario to become proficient in using the Member Records search form: Novice User

Committees Search Form

Use the Committees Search form to retrieve a variety of information on a House, Senate, or joint committee, including its membership, schedules, subcommittee names, and hearing topics.If you do not know the name of a committee, select “Look up a Committee,” locate its name in the resulting pop-up, then click it to copy it into the search form.

Practice the following scenario to become proficient in using the Committees search form: Intermediate User

Demographics Search Form

Use the Demographics Search form to retrieve profile information on current Members of Congress by selecting the demographic criteria that best describes them. For example, you could locate all the female Members of the Senate by selecting Female from the Gender drop-down and selecting Senate from the Chamber drop-down. Search results consist of member profile reports for all the individuals who satisfy your search criteria. Profile reports contain information such as party affiliation, swearing-in date, gender, religion, race, occupation, education, committee assignments, and a brief biography.

Practice the following scenario to become proficient in using the Demographics search form: Advanced User

Regulations

This category, oddly, has nothing to do with Congress. It contains the text of regulations issued by the executive branch and published in either the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) or the Federal Register.

Get a Document Form

Use the Get a Document form to retrieve the text of a regulation when you know its citation.

Practice the following scenario to become proficient in using the Get a Document form: Novice User

Keyword Search Form

Use the Keyword Search form to perform keyword searches on the text of regulations.

Practice the following scenarios to become proficient in using the Keyword Search form: Intermediate User | Advanced User

Congressional Record & Rules

This category contains the following publications:

The Congressional Record

This is the official record of the proceedings and debate of Congress. It is an excellent source for preparing for debates on a particular topic and for locating statements by specific members of Congress.

The House Rules and Manual

This is published by the the House Parliamentarian's Office and contains the fundamental source material for parliamentary procedure used in the House of Representatives

The Senate Manual

This is prepared under the direction of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and contains the rules, orders, laws, and resolutions affecting the business of the United States Senate

Jefferson's Manual of Parliamentary Practice, 

This was authored by Thomas Jefferson while he was Vice President and has been the principal procedural guide for Congress ever since.

Keyword Search Form

Use the Keyword Search form to perform full-text searches on the Congressional Record and the various sources for the rules of Congress.

Practice the following scenario to become proficient in using the Keyword Search form: Novice User

Get a Document Form

Use the Get a Document form to retrieve, using the appropriate number, specific citations from the Congressional Record and specific rules from the various sources for the Rules of Congress.

Practice the following scenario to become proficient in combining the Get a Document form and the Keyword Search form: Intermediate User

Practice the following scenario to become proficient in using the Get a Document form: Advanced User

Political News/Hot Topics

This category provides an easy way to explore and research current issues.

Political News Search Form

Use the Political News search form to retrieve articles from these leading Washington news publications:

The Washington Post (1977–current)

Articles found in LexisNexis Congressional are only from this newspaper’s A Section, which contains national political coverage, investigative reporting of the federal government, and in-depth news and analysis of domestic and foreign policy.

Roll Call (1989–current)

This semi-weekly newspaper covers the United States Congress with a unique close-up perspective. It strives to provide the “best coverage of the people, politics, and process of Congress.” 

The Hill (1955–current)

This weekly newspaper covers the actions of Congress and the influence of congressional leaders, the administration, and lobbyists. The Hill is delivered every Wednesday to each Member of Congress and to thousands of congressional aides.

Hot Bills & Hot Topics Search Form

Use the Hot Bills & Hot Topics search form to access direct links to bills, bill tracking reports, discussions of bills, and pre-selected articles from major national and regional news sources on a variety of current affairs topics.

Practice the following scenarios to become proficient in using the Hot Bills & Hot Topics form: Novice User | Intermediate User | Advanced User

Other LexisNexis Products

LexisNexis Academic

Includes News, Business, and Legal Research sections. Business information includes financial statements, accounting, taxation, industries, international business, information systems. Legal Research includes law reviews, case law, codes, and statutes for all U.S. courts and all 50 states. Start here when looking for Supreme Court decisions and Texas Cases. If you are looking for regulations, use LexisNexis Congressional, even though regulations are not congressional publications.

Government Periodicals Index

Provides citations (but not not full text) to articles from over 270 government-produced periodicals, from 1988 to the present.

LexisNexis State Capital

Contains state government information, including legislation, statutes, regulations, research reports on issues affecting states, information about state legislators, their staffs and state offices, and links to other Web sites containing useful information about the states.

LexisNexis Statistical

Contains statistical tables and indexes to statistical sources.

Entering a Search Request

Type your search term or terms in the fields provided in the search form. (The exact layout of the search form varies depending on which category you are searching.)

• Depending on which form you are in, you may be able to restrict your search by adding index terms, selecting a specific source or group of sources, and selecting a date or range of dates. There may be other more specific search criteria you can enter in the form.
• For help in constructing your search, click on the question mark button in the upper right corner of the form. There may also be related links in the margin describing how to do specific kinds of searches. LexisNexis offers general advice on Building a Search String.
  

After completing the search form, click on the red "Search" button in the upper right corner of the form. If you change your mind about what you want to search and wish to start over, you can click on the "Clear Form" link in the lower right to erase everything you have typed in.

• If your search finds no documents, click the red "Edit Search" button in the No Documents Found screen to return to the search form and revise your original search. If you want to start over, click the , or select "Clear Form" from the lower right corner of the search form.
• If your search find too many documents, you can narrow your search in the results list by entering terms in the FOCUS™ Search box in the upper right corner. If your search results in more than 1000 hits, you will be prompted to try again. Select "Edit Search" from the Try Again screen to return to the search form and try narrowing your search with additional terms, or try limiting by date or by source. 
• If your search finds an acceptable number of documents, review them for usefulness. Results can be sorted by relevancy or by date.

Viewing the Results of a Search

You can view the documents in any of four formats:

Result List

This the default format. It lists all the titles and publication information, usually in reverse chronological order. Click on any title to view the full text of the document.

Expanded List

This lists all the titles and publication information, along with each keyword plus 3–5 words before and after the keyword to provide context. It is the most efficient way to browse a set of documents for relevancy.

KWIC™

The Key Word In Context format displays the keywords you searched, along with about 15–25 words before and after each keyword. One document at a time is displayed.

Full Document

This shows the full text of each document, with each section labeled. Only one document at a time is displayed. Click "Next" to move to the next document.

Printing, Downloading, or E-Mailing

To save a set of citations:

1. Be sure you are viewing in Result List or Expanded List format.
2. Click the box next to each citation you want to keep.
3. Click on the printer icon in the upper left corner of the page.
4. Indicate the range of documents you want and whether you want to view them in the Results List (concise) or Expanded List (full) format.
5. Click the red "Continue" button to bring up the text in a printable format. 
6. Print, save to a disk, or e-mail to yourself using your browser's capabilities.

To save the full text or KWIC™ version of a document:

1. Be sure you are viewing in Full View  or KWIC™ format. (Not all documents are available as full text in LexisNexis Congressional. It depends on your library's subscription terms.)
2. Click on the printer icon in the upper left corner of the page.
3. Click the "Display Document" button.
4. Print, save, or e-mail to yourself using your browser's capabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

The following links provide advice for performing specific tasks in LexisNexis Congressional.

How Do I …

Bookmark Advanced Form searches in LexisNexis® Congressional?

Find congressional publications on a specific topic?

Find testimony from a hearing?

Find a publication or a bill that I just heard about in the news within the last few days?

Find information about a senator or representative?

Find information about a congressional committee?

Find the debate on a bill or a topic?

Find the outlook for passage of a bill into law?

Find the text of a bill?

Find out where a bill is in the legislative process?

Find a legislative history of a law?

Find the final vote on a bill?

Cite congressional publications?

Find all the regulations that relate to a topic or to a law?

Find ideas for a paper?

Access the Statutes at Large optional module?