Social Work Policy Research

Federal Legislation

• Congress.gov 

Search Congress.gov directly using the search box below.

• GovTrack.us

  • Nonpartisan source for legislative information and statistics.

• Govinfo
  • Free public access to official government publications.
• Congressional Research Service Reports
  • Research reports from the Congressional Research Service (CRS).  CRS is a nonpartisan branch of the Library of Congress that provides research services to Congress.

State Legislation

• Illinois General Assembly
  • Under "Legislation & Laws" heading, find links to "Bills & Resolutions" and "Public Acts."
• Wisconsin State Legislature
  • Select 'Law and Legislation' on the right-hand side of the page to find search tools.
• Openstates
  • Public website that allows you to search for state legislative information.

Search Tips

• Use filters on the left-hand side of the results pages.  Ex: Bill Type, Status of Legislation, Subject, etc.
• Use the 'browse' features to see the legislation for various topics.
• When you find an interesting piece of legislation, look it up in Google or the library databases to see if people are talking about it.

Citing Bills

Templates

• House of Representatives:  Title, H.R. bill or resolution number, ### Cong. (year). URL [optional]
• Senate:  Title, S. bill or resolution number, ### Cong. (year). URL [optional]

Examples

• ZZZ's to A's Act, H.R. 2245, 115th Cong. (2017). https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2245
• Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2017, S. 1312, 115th Cong. (2017). https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1312#:~:text=(Sec.,(Sec.

In-Text Citations

Examples

• Senate Bill 1312 (2017)
• (S. 1312, 2017)
• (H.R. 2245, 2017)

Further Resources

• University of Southern California Legal References Guide
• Library of Congress Citation Guide