U.S. Politics and Government

How the United States government works, the major institutions, and the politics that shapes what it does.

This page:
U.S. Politics and Government, generally | Executive Branch | Legislative Branch | Judicial Branch | Government Documents | Law | Politics | State and Local Governments | California Politics and Government

U.S. Politics and Government, generally

Guides to the U.S. Government:

• U.S. Government Manual - The standard guide for navigating the federal government
• Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids - A nicely done site with different tracks for different ages
• U.S. Government Policy and Supporting Positions - The "Plumbook" lists the 8,000 top jobs

Web Directories and Search Engines:

• USA.Gov - Official directory of federal government Web sites (formerly FirstGov.gov)
• A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies
• Blogs from the U.S. Government
• Government Podcasts and RSS Feeds
• USA.Gov Answers - Questions and answers about the federal government. If your question isn't listed, ask it.
• Google U.S. Government Search - Google's search engine of U.S. federal, state, and local government sites
• Google Government Search with State Filtering - Limit your results to a specific state (ResearchBuzz)
• Browse Topics - A subject directory of federal government Web sites [browsetopics.gov]
• Federal Agencies Directory (Louisiana State U. libraries)
• Gov+ - Searches federal and state government sites, news organizations, and think tanks (Clusty)
• GovEngine - Directory of federal, state, and local government Web sites
• Government Guide
• Government Portals - Sites with names in the form of "SubjectName.gov" (California State University Chico, Merriam Library)
• GovSpot
• Politics Navigator (New York Times)
• U.S. Politics, Government, and Law - An annotated list of reference Websites (Library of Congress)
• Yahoo: U.S. Government
• See also Demographics and Statistics for data collected by the U.S. federal government

Miscellaneous:

• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance - Grants available from the federal government
• FCIC National Contact Center - Phone directories for the federal government
• Kids.gov - Official kids' portal for teh U.S. government
• Political Graveyard - How, when and where politicians died and where they are buried; info on living pols, too
• Top 200 Government Contractors (Government Executive, 2003)
• U.S. Government RSS Library - All kinds of feeds from federal agencies (USA.Gov)

Government: Executive Branch

• White House - Includes links to most other Executive Branch agencies
• See also Presidents

White House Documents:

• Weekly Compilation of Presidential Papers - 1993 to date (U.S. Government Printing Office)
• Public Papers of the President - From 1991 to the latest published volume (U.S. Government Printing Office)
• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States - Back to the Hoover administration (University of Michigan Digital Library)
• Papers of the Presidents of the United States - Back to Washington, but not all presidents' papers are available yet (Avalon Project, Yale)
• See also Executive Orders below

Dept. of Defense, Military:

• DefenseLink - Public portal of the U.S. Dept. of Defense
• Armed Forces Information Service
• Defense Almanac - Facts and figures about the Dept. of Defense and military

Web Directory and Search Engine

• Navigating the Military Internet (Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School)
• SearchMil.com - Searches .mil domains
• See also War and Peace

Other Executive Branch Agencies (selected):

• Bureau of Engraving and Printing [moneyfactory.com]
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Forest Service
• Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - Not the most fun or the most interesting site, but it can be useful.
• Forms and publications are available online.
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Archives and Records Administration
• National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• National Weather Service
• National Park Service
• National Science Foundation
• Peace Corps
• Smithsonian Institution
• State Department
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
• U.S. Mint
• U.S. Naval Observatory
• U.S. Postal Service (USPS)
• The United States Postal Service: An American History (publication 100)
• See also Government Documents below and U.S. National and State Libraries

International Relations:

• Treaties in Force (State Dept.)
• Military Policy Awareness Links (MiPALs) - Compilations of U.S. policy statements on current world hot spots

What if the President asks you to join the administration?

• A Survivor's Guide for Presidential Nominees (Brookings Institution)

Government: Legislative Branch

• Thomas - Congress, including status of pending bills and recent statutes (Library of Congress)
• House of Representatives
• Senate
• Legislative Branch Resources - Including bills, public and private laws, Congressional Record, and much more (U.S. Government Printing Office)

Members of Congress:

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 - Present
• Congressional Directory - Official guide to current members (Government Printing Office)
• Congressional District maps (National Atlas)
• CongressMerge - Find your representative, find members of Congress who meet certain criteria (e.g., age, profession, religion), get schedules and lists of committee members
• Congresspedia - An encyclopedia of members of Congress. Find out about members' voting records and campaign contribution; find out which members are under investigation.
• Write Your Representative

Congressional News:

• Congressional Quarterly - Independent news about Congress
• The Hill
• Roll Call - The Capitol Hill insiders' newspaper

How a Bill Becomes a Law:

Various viewpoints.

• How Our Laws Are Made - By the House parliamentarian
• Enactment of a Law - By the Senate parliamentarian
• How Our Laws Are Made: A Ghost Writer's View - By a staffer in the Legislative Counsel's Office

Historical Legislation:

From the Library of Congress' American Memory project.

• Bills and Resolutions, 1799-1873
• Statutes at Large, 1789-1875
• U.S. Serial Set - House and Senate documents and House and Senate reports, 1833-1917
• See also Statutes, for recent legislation

Rules:

• Jefferson's Manual and Rules of the House of Representatives
• Senate Manual

Legislative Branch Agencies:

• Architect of the Capitol
• Congressional Budget Office
• Government Accountability Office (GAO)
• Government Printing Office (see also Government Documents below)
• Library of Congress
• U.S. Botanic Garden

Government: Judicial Branch

• U.S. Federal Judiciary
• Federal Courts Finder (Emory Law Library)
• Finding Court Opinions on the Web - A guide to sources for federal and state courts by Robert J. Abrogi
• U.S. Supreme Court - Current decisions are available, but since they came relatively late to the Web, other sites have larger archives. See Law below.

Government Documents

• Core Documents of U.S. Democracy - Links to some of the most important documents in our history, legal materials, and government reference sites (U.S. Government Printing Office)
• Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy - Important documents, speeches, and court cases (U.S. Information Agency)

• American Historical Documents, 1000-1904 (Harvard Classics via Bartleby)
• CIA Maps & Publications - Unclassified documents available for sale
• Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, CO 81009

• Core or Essential Government Documents, as selected by government document librarians (Diane Kovacs)
• Fedworld - Government databases
• Government Accountability Office reports and testimony - Nonpartisan GAO reports often make the news; find them here
• National Archives and Records Administration
• National Technical Information Service (NTIS) - Technical publications from government agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Web database goes back only to 1990, so e-mail or call for publications older than that.
• See also U.S. Government Research
• Our Documents - Information on 100 milestone documents in U.S. history
• U.S. Government Documents Ready Reference Collection - Most frequently used gov. docs at Columbia
• U.S. Government Periodicals (U. of Louisville)
• University of Michigan Documents Center - Links to documents and other government information from around the world

Public Records:

• Introduction to Public Records Research - All kinds of sources for public records you may not have known about, from law librarian Genie Tyburski
• KnowX - Search public records (fee for some records)
• SearchSystems.net Public Records Directory - International list of sources
• Virtual Gumshoe - Public records and other sources of information
• See also Political Research for sites that dig up documents officials would rather you didn't see

Archived Government Web Sites:

• CyberCemetery of former federal Web sites (U. of North Texas)
• Web Harvest - A project of the National Archives to save Web sites at the end of Presidential and Congressional terms

Ask a Government Documents Librarian:

• Government Information Online: Virtual Reference Service - Ask government documents librarians your question [govtinfo.org]

Law

Primary Sources: Constitution

• U.S. Constitution - Including facsimiles of the original document (National Archives)
• Popular Names of Constitutional Provisions

Primary Sources: Statutes

• Thomas - Congress, including status of pending bills and recent statutes (Library of Congress)
• U.S. Code: Search or Browse
• Statutes at Large: Search or Browse laws and resolutions passed by Congress, from the 108th Congress (2003-2004) on. (GPO Access)
• Public Laws - From the 104th Congress (1995-1996) on (National Archives)
• Popular Names of Acts in the U.S. Code - If you know the common name of a federal law, this will tell you where to find it (Cornell)
• See also Historical Legislation

Primary Sources: Regulations

• Code of Federal Regulations - Back to 1996
• Federal Register - Back to 1994

Primary Sources: Executive Orders

• Executive Orders - Back to 1937 (National Archives, Office of the Federal Register)

Primary Sources: Supreme Court Decisions

• Federal Legal Information Through Electronics (FLITE) - Searchable database of Supreme Court decisions from 1937 (FedWorld)
• Supreme Court decisions (via Cornell)

Secondary Sources, Legal Research:

• Cornell Legal Research Encyclopedia - Links to primary texts and other Web sites; international and foreign law, as well as U.S. law
• FindLaw - A portal for all kinds of legal information
• Guide to Law Online - Links to guides and primary texts for U.S. federal law, U.S. state law, law of other nations, international law
• Hieros Gamos - U.S. and international law
• Internet Law Library - Formerly hosted at the U.S. House of Representatives' site
• Law and Politics: Internet Guide - U.S., Foreign, and International legal sources
• Law.com - Legal news
• Law.com Dictionary
• LawGuru - Legal research databases, ask a lawyer, search legal questions and answers, etc.
• Nolo Press:
• Law Center
• Legal Encyclopedia
• Everybody's Legal Dictionary
• Oyez Project - Leading constitutional cases, information on the Supreme Court (Northwestern U.)
• Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources (Congressional Research Service report 98-461)
• The Virtual Chase - "Teaching legal professionals how to do research." This site by a law librarian covers more than just legal research, including researching companies, finding people, and finding factual information in many areas.
• Zimmerman's Research Guide - Legal research and related subjects (Lexis-Nexis)

Find a Lawyer:

• Find a Lawyer, Attorney, or Law Firm - From West Legal Directory/Findlaw (formerly LawOffice.com)
• Lawyers.com (Martindale-Hubbell)

Intellectual Property:

• U.S. Copyright Office (Library of Congress)
• Extension of Copyright Terms (Circular 15t)
• New Terms for Copyright Protection (Factsheet SL-15)
• Copyright Website - Helps you register a copyright and gives info on copyright law (Benedict.com)
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Search patents and trademarks

Crime and Punishment:

• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI):
• FBI's Most Wanted List - Save a trip to the post office and check out the posters here
• Most Wanted Terrorists
• Uniform Crime Reports

Criminal Justice Index:

• National Criminal Justice Reference Service - Research (full text and abstracts) in criminology; also experts are available to answer questions

U.S. Politics

• Inside Politics Political news from CNN (aka All Politics)
• Democratic Party (Official site) [democrats.org]
• America Coming Together (ACT)
• The American Prospect
• Democratic Socialists of America - Includes links to like-minded sites
• Democratic Underground - News and commentary in support of the Democratic Party and liberalism generally
• Mother Jones - The magazine for the rest of us
• MoveOn.org
• Turn Left - The home of liberalism on the Web
• Vote Smart - Check the candidates' records

Political Commentary on the News:

• Altercation - Eric Alterman's comments on the news
• Crooks and Liars - I.e., Republicans
• Daily Kos
• The Huffington Post
• Liberal Oasis

• President Boxer - All about my favorite senator and related matters
• Slashdot Politics - "Politics for nerds. Your vote matters."
• Talking Points Memo by Joshua Micah Marshall

Web Directory:

• Commentary Today - Links to commentators on the left and right
• See also Politics generally

Campaigns:

• FactCheck.org - Annenberg Foundation site giving the facts behind the political ads
• Federal Election Commission - Monitors campaign finance
• Open Secrets - Reports on contributions to U.S. politicians
• Political MoneyLine - Another source of data

State and Local Governments

Find State and Territorial Government Web Sites:

-- Choose a state -- Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming


• State and Local Government on the Net
• State and Local Governments - Directory of state government Web sites with links to larger cities' sites (Library of Congress)
• State and Territorial Governments (USA.gov)
• State Government and Politics (U. of Michigan)
• State Research Guides (Georgetown Law Library)
• Stateline.org - News on political developments in state governments, organized by issue and state
• State Agency Databases - Different kinds of information compiled by state governments (American Library Association, Government Documents Roundtable)
• National Association of Counties: Find a County

California Government and Politics:

• California State Government
• Official Legislative Information - Current legislation, California codes, your legislators (leginfo.ca.gov)
• Field Poll
• Arnold Watch tells the true story about our famous governor
• A San Francisco Progressive Directory
• See also California