Research Resources: Government Documents & Information

Contents

Documents at F&M Federal Government: General Information Federal Government: Legislative, Regulatory, and Judicial Information Hot Topics and Current Issues State Information Local Information International and Foreign Information Statistical Resources Additional Resources

Documents at F&M

• Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

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Federal Government: General Information

• GPO Access (search and retrieve government information from the US Government Printing Office)
• FDsys (the new Federal Depository Library website; this will eventually replace GPO Access)
• USA.gov (browse US Government web sites and find consumer information)
• GovFresh.com (live information feeds from the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and many government agencies)
• HealthCare.gov (Your health care, explained - from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
• Frequently Used Sites Related to U.S. Federal Government Information (ALA GODORT FDTF)
• Documents Center (one-stop shopping from the University of Michigan)
• U.S. Federal Government Agencies Directory (locate all federal agencies via LSU)
• INFOMINE (huge collection of government resources and guides from the University of California, Riverside)
• Oxford Guide to the United States Government
• US House of Representatives
• US Senate Home Page
• White House Home Page
• Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents
• Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents
• Public Papers of the President
• Recent State of the Union Addresses
• The American President (a non-partisan resource from the Miller Center for Public Affairs)
• Congressional Research Service Reports (access to various collections of archived reports)
• Congressional Research Service Reports (for Homeland Security and Health Law & Policy)
• Freedom of Information Act (the new home page for FOIA data and reports)
• CIA Library (reference sources, unclassified reports, and maps)
• Joint Economic Committee (reports and statistical data on various aspects of the U. S. economy)
• Wirtz Labor Digital Library (access to Labor Deppartment publications and statistical data)
• Internal Revenue Service Page (tax forms, instructions, and more from the IRS)
• FedStats (a gateway to statistical data from government agencies)
• Business.gov (a gateway to small business information from federal, state, and local resources)
• Science.gov (a gateway to scientific and health information)

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Federal Government: Legislative, Regulatory, and Judicial Information

• Congress.Org (searchable member directories and current awareness)
• Congressional Directory (the official directory for the 108th Congress, with the January 2004 update)
• Congressional Universe(indexing, abstracting, and some full-text of publications of the U.S. Congress, 1970 to the present)
• GPO Access (search and retrieve congressional information from the US Government Printing Office, with mirror, or Gateway, sites at over 20 universities, each with their own strengths.)
• Library of Congress (guide to the U.S. Legislative Branch)
• Thomas (search & retrieve legislation from the 103^rd to current congresses)
• Congressional Record (search & retrieve proceedings and debates of the United States Congress from 1994 to the present)
• A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U. S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875 (from the Library of Congress)
• Federal Register (search & retrieve proposed and final regulations from 1994 to the present)
• Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register, updated annually)
• Administrative Decisions (links to agency web pages, organized by the University of Virginia Library)
• United States Code (the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States.)
• Congressional Research Service Reports (access to various collections of archived reports)
• Selected CRS Reports (reports from the Congressional Research Service on terrorism, homeland security, and health law & policy)
• U. S. Government Accountability Office (reports, opinions, and testimonies on all facets of governmental activity)
• GAO Reports (a permanent link to all reports issued by the Government Accountability Office and GAO Comptroller General decisions)
• The Plum Book (U.S. Government Policy and Supporting Positions)
• Federal Election Commission (includes campaign finance information)
• Supreme Court of the United States (information about the Court and links to recent opinions)
• Law Library of Congress (access to court cases, legal information, and legislative resources - from the Library of Congress)
• Legal Information Institute, Cornell University (Supreme Court Collection)
• FindLaw(links to executive, legislative, and judicial materials)

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Hot Topics and Current Issues

• Fiscal Year 2014 Proposed Federal Budget (and supplemental reports) (released April 10, 2013)
• Economic Report of the President (March 2013)
• U. S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report (EPA) (April 2013)
• Preisent Obama's State of the Union Address (February 12, 2013) as published in the Congressional Record
• Department of Justice White Paper: The Lawfulness of a Lethal Operarion Directed Against a U. S. Citizen Who Is a Senior Organizational Leader of Al-Qaida or an Associated Force (January 2013)
• Supreme Court Health Care Decision (June 28, 2012)
• Changes in the Distribution of Income among Tax Filers between 1996 and 2006 (Congressional Research Service report, December 29, 2011 - 22 pages)
• Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007 (Congressional Budget Office report, October 2011 - 63 pages)
• The President's Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction, September 19, 2011 (72 pages)
• The American Jobs Act, Legislative Proposal from President Obama, September 12, 2011 (206 pages)
• Richard Nixon's Watergate Grand Jury Testimony (June 1975) just released by the National Archives, November 10, 2011
• National Strategy for Counterterrorism, June 2011 (26 pages)
• Wall Street and the Financial Crisis (Report of the U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, April 2011 - 650 pages)
• Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs... (GAO Report to Congress, March 2011 - 345 pages)
• Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-being (March 2011 - 97 pages)
• National Military Strategy of the United States 2011 (released Feb. 8, 2011 - 24 pages)
• President Obama's State of the Union Address (January 25, 2011)
• Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 through 2021 (The Congressional Budget Office Projections, January 2011 - 190 pages, with a 5-page summary)
• Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (January 2011 - 662 pages)
• Deepwater: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling - Report to the President (by the BP Oil Spill Commission, January 11, 2011 - 398 p.)
• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Selected Issues for Congress (a report from the Congressional Research Service, May 27, 2010 - 37 pages))
• Deepwater Horizon Response (the official site of the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill)
• Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation (the official site of the Joint Investigation Team, U. S. Coast Guard and the Mineral Management Service)
• HealthCare.gov (Your health care, explained - from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
• National HIV/AIDS Strategy (the Executive Summary with a link to the complete 60-page report)
• National Security Strategy of the U. S. (60-page report, released on May 27, 2010)
• Resources on Elena Kagan (writings and tanscripts and other resources by and about the new Supreme Court nominee, from the Law Library of Congress)
• Working Mothers in the Great Recession (6-page report from the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, May 2010)
• Capability of the People's Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation (88-page report from the US-Cina Economic and Security Review Commission, October 2009)
• Latest Reports on Afghanistan, from the U. S. Dept. of Defense (152 p.)
• Too Fat to Fight: Retired Military Leaders Want Junk Food Out of America's Schools (12-page report from MissionReadiness.org)
• Links to the Health Care Reform Bill and congressional debate
• Nuclear Posture Review, U. S. Department of Defense - contains a link to the complete April 2010 report (72 pages)
• White House Review of the December 25, 2009 Attempted Terrorist Attack (summary, 6 pages)
• United States Plan for Sustaining the Afghan National Security Forces (the 51-page 2009 report from the Defense Department)
• Afghanistan and Pakistan Regional Stabilization Strategy (U.S. Dept. of State, January 2010 - 39 pages)
• Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood (U.S. Dept. of Defense Independent Review, January 2010 - 86 pages)
• Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed to Get Bin Laden and Why It Matters Today (report from the U. S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Nov. 30, 2009 - 49 pages)
• Factors Effecting Efforts to Limit Payments to AIG Counterparties (report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program [TARP], Nov. 17, 2009 - 47 pages)
• SEC Investigation of Bernard Madoff (the 22-page executive summary, August 2009)
• H.R. 3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (1,017 pages)
• Mid-Session Review of the U. S. Budget (74 pages) (August 2009)
• Financial Regulatory Reform (the full 89-page report from the U. S. Treasury Department, 6/17/09)
• Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U. S. Custody (Report of the Committee on Armed Services, U. S. Senate, released 4/22/09 - 263 pages)
• United States Policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan (White Paper of the Interagency Policy Group, 3/27/09 - 6 pages)
• President Obama's Executive Order on Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells
• President Obama's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget
• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act)
• Recovery.gov(a web site designed to track the progress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act)
• FinancialStability.gov(a web site from the U.S. Treasury Department about the Financial Stability Plan for the banking industry)
• Progress in Afghanistan (US Dept. of Defense, January 2009 - 130 pages)
• An Overview of the United States Intelligence Community for the 111th Congress (Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Feb. 2009 - 29 pages)
• Financial Crisis Timeline (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
• Report on Pandemic Influenza (House Homeland Security Committee, 1/14/09)
• Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report(NASA). A link to the full 400-page report as well as related publications
• The Bush Record (The White House) documents on the accomplishments of the Bush Administration
• Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U. S. Custody (Senate Armed Services Committee, Dec. 2008)
• House Reports on the Abuse of Executive Privilege, Dec. 2008
• Financial Bailout Report (Congressional Research Service)
• Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities (Nov. 2007 report from the National Intelligence Council)
• War at Any Price? The Total Economic Costs of the War Beyond the Federal Budget (Nov. 2007)
• CIA Inspector General's report on pre-9/11 intelligence
• Report on the Prewar Intelligence Assessments About Postwar Iraq Together With Additional Views (229 pages)
• Continuing Challenge of Building the Iraqi Security Forces (House Armed Services Committee report, June 2007 - 207 pages)
• The Iraq Study Group Report - released December 6, 2006
• Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq (March 2007) - the latest report from the Defense Department
• Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - currently features two lengthy reports on the use, and mis-use of intelligence about Iraq
• A Failure of Initiative: The Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and the Response to Hurricane Katrina
• The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned (The White House report)
• Supreme Court Nominations - Confirmed (a list of nominees with links to all official documents)
• Supreme Court Nominations - Not Confirmed (a list of nominees with links to all official documents)
• Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities... (Congress' investigation into the 9/11 attacks)
• Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq (The full, 521-page report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence)
• Conclusions of the Intelligence Report (The 30-page summary of the Senate Select Committee's report)

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State Information

• The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Consolidated Statutes of Pennsylvania
• The Pennsylvania State Data Center (links to census data on the state and county level)
• State Constitutions, Statutes and Related Legislative Information (Cornell University)
• State Government Collections -- try one of the following:
1. American Law Sources On-Line (ALSO!)
2. Virtual Law Library(Indiana University School of Law) From the "Browse by Information Type" menu, select "State Government Servers"
3. FindLaw
4. State Government Information Index
5. Piper Resources
• Council of State Governments
• State Legislative Database(GoverNet Affairs)
• National Governors Association (news reports and links to information about all 50 Governors)
• StateList(the Electronic Source for State Publication Lists from UIUC)
• State BEARFACTS (regional economic data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis)
• NASIRE StateSearch

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Local Information

• Lancaster County Government
• Lancaster City
• Lancaster Economy Atlas 2006 (prepared by the Local Economy Center at F&M)
• Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry
• National Association of Counties

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International and Foreign Information

• World Factbook(CIA - annual)
• Country Studies(Library of Congress)
• Documents Center (University of Michigan)
• Foreign Governments(links to individual foreign government pages, Northwestern Univ.)
• Foreign National Governments, International Governmental Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizaions (ALA GODORT International Documents Task Force)
• International Governmental Organizations (Northwestern University)
• US State Department Home Page
• Background Notes(Factual publications that contain information on all the countries of the world with which the United States has relations)
• Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 1999-2007 (from the U.S. Dept. of State)
• United Nations
• Voting Practices at the United Nations(compiled by the U.S. State Department)

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Statistical Resources

• Fedstats (search engine for government statistics and data)
• Statistical Abstract of the U. S. (does not load completely in Explorer)
• US Census Bureau
• Census Bureau Economic Programs
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Bureau of Economic Analysis (U.S. Dept. of Commerce)
• FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research) (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
• Business & Economics Numeric Data
• Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-being (March 2011)
• United Nations Statistics Division
• InfoNation (comparative country data from the United Nations)
• International Voter Turnout Statistics
• International Data Base (IDB) (from the U.S. Census Bureau)

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Additional Resources

• GODORT (Government Documents Round Table, ALA)
• GPO Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (search for government documents)
• CyberCemetery (an archive of government websites that no longer exist, hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries)
• Documents Data Miner (a collection management tool for depository libraries)
• Resources of Use to Government Documents Librarians (GODORT)
• GODORT Information Clearinghouse and Handout Exchange
• Government Information in the 21st Century (useful guides and training materials from Web Junction)

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