Skip to Main Content
Phillips Library Banner

U.S. Domestic Policy Research

How to research policy and legislation applying to those in the United States of America

What is Domestic Policy?

Domestic Policy is

the set of decisions that a government makes relating to things that directly affect the people in its own country [1] 

image of the United States congress in session"Dealing with a wide range of critical issues, such as healthcare, education, energy, and natural resources, social welfare, taxation, public safety, and personal freedoms, domestic policy affects the daily lives of every citizen." [2] 

Some of the most impactful and well-known domestic policies in recent U.S. history include social welfare policies like the No Child Left Behind Act, Clean Air Act, and the Affordable Care Act. Other domestic policies like Social Security and Medicare are so embedded in our culture that we may not realize they originated as a bill in congress. Learn more about major U.S. domestic policies. [3]

Although most people think about domestic policy in relation to federal laws, policies directly impacting citizens are also created at the state and local levels.

1. Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.) Domestic policy. In Cambridge Business English Dictionary. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/domestic-policy

2. How Domestic Policy in US Government Affects Americans’ Daily Lives. (2021, July 27). ThoughtCo. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-domestic-policy-4115320

3. University of Minnesota (2011) American Government and Politics in the Information Age. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.lib.umn.edu/americangovernment/front-matter/publisher-information/ CC-NC-SA 4.0.