POLS 324 - Natural Resource Policy - Rosenberg. 2009Fall 

Hearings before congressional committees can be one of the most useful documents to find. They can, but don't always, include views representing diverse perspectives on the issue at hand.

It is possible to search for hearings in various ways. One of the most effective is to use FDsys.

Use FDsys Advanced Search

•  From the list of "Available Collections" select and "Add" Congressional Hearings, and Congressional Reports.

•  In the search box, enter the key term(s) for your topic; and click the "Search" button.

•  Not all the results will be useful.  Scan the titles for those that seem most relevant.  You can also re-sort the list by date if that would be useful.

•  When you are looking at the pdf of a hearing, note near the beginning the list of persons and who they represent.   Also note the possible inclusion of "Additional material submitted for the record," which may be articles or reports supporting the views of one or more witnesses.

•  Remember, you can search for terms in a pdf document.  That may help you locate the most relevant parts.

How and where you conduct your search for government publications depends to a great degree on the date you are interested in.

• For recent years (~ 1995-date) use search tools such as FDsys and GPOAccess to find both congressional and executive agency publications.
• For years from 1971 - 1993 use the printed volumes of CIS (Congressional Information Service) to find congressional documents.  Use Catalog of U.S. Government Publications to find agency publications.
• For older years use the printed Monthly Catalog of Government Publications, or try Google BookSearch.

See links and call numbers below for these resources.

Legislation - Federal

• Congressional Information Service (CIS). Paper volumes of this annual are found in the stacks at KF 49.C62 for the years 1970 - 1993. This can be very useful for finding hearings, reports, dates when the legislation was discussed in the Congressional Record, and the Public Law number. Use the "Index" volume for the appropriate year to look for your legislation by subject. Then follow up in the "Abstracts" volume with the H-### or S-### numbers to find synopses of the hearings or reports, and the SuDocs numbers and titles to track down the full documents. At the end of each year's volumes (or in a separate volume in later years) there are "Legislative Histories" that are arranged by the Public Law (P.L.) number.

• Lexis-Nexis - Go to "Lexis-Nexis / Legal". You can browse for legislative law by choosing "Federal & State Codes" then look for "USCS - Environment...", for example. You will find the law as codified into "Titles", with references to PL (public law) numbers, dates, Statute numbers, amendments, and more.

• Environmental Law Net (www.EnvironmentalLawNet.com). Is a good source for links to legislation, agency documents and databases, court and agency decisions.

• LLRX.com (www.LLRX.com)- "Law & Technology Resources" - Use the search option. Broaden your search by checking the buttons to search "LLRX and beSpacific" or ""Legal Web".

• United States Statutes at Large - KF 50. These are the printed forms of the laws as passed by Congress. Brief "Legislative history" is provided for each act, including bill #, committee reports, Congressional Record references.

• GPO Access - Public Laws are online beginning with the 104th Congress (1995-96).

• FDSys - the NEW Federal Digital System (beta) that offers access to recent bills, laws, committee reports and hearings, CFR, Federal Register, and more. See box at left for more on using FDsys.

Locating Congressional Committee documents:

The documents themselves: they may be in paper, microfiche, or online.In paper and microfiche they are filed by their SuDocs number.  For congressional publications, these numbers begin with Y - for ex. Y 4.R 31/3:104-4

• Most recent (last 10 years or so) U.S. documents, including Congressional committee publications, are available online.
• Committee reports from the 95th Congress (1978) and earlier (scattered older holdings) are found in the printed Serials Set volumes in the library basement.
• Committee reports from the 96th Congress (1979) are on microfiche at X96-Sess.#:H.RP.#, and Senate Reports as X96-Sess.#:S.RP.#. The House Reports from the 97th Congress to date are filed under SuDocs microfiche number Y1.1/8: and Senate Reports under Y1.1/5:
• Committee hearings may be in paper or microfiche. Search the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and check both the paper and microfiche collections by the SuDocs #.
• You may be able to find scanned copies of some U.S. documents using Google BookSearch.
• Government documents that are not in the SUNY Potsdam collection may be requested through interlibrary loan

Online Sources via the library's Government Documents page

• Search for U.S. government publications, including Congressional hearings, reports, and documents.
  • Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - Covers print and online publications 1976-date. To search for committee hearings, add the search term "hearing*" to your search. For ex.: wetland* and hearing*
  • USA.gov - searches for online publications only
  • Google U.S. Government Search - Google's version of a government document search engine
  • The Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - a printed index at Ref Z 1223 .A18. It is the only comprehensive index for pre-1976 government publications.
  • On the library's web page on Congress there are links to
    THOMAS: Legislative Branch, including Committee Reports (online 1995-date)
    Congressional Committees Online
    Congressional Hearings: Browse : Search
• Congressional Record. see the page on Congress on the library web site

Federal Regulations

• Agency web sites can be a good way to explore rules and regulations. For example, the EPA (www.epa.gov) has a good web site that offers good resources. Try this path through their site: "Laws & Regulations" / "Regulatory Information by Environmental Topic"
• The Federal Register - is "the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations" online from 1994 to date.
• The Federal Register is also searchableGo to "Lexis-Nexis / Legal / Federal & State Codes" to search for
  • United States Code - the text of current U.S. federal law
  • Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) - current regulations in effect
  • Federal Register - July 1, 1980 - date. Federal agency documents, such as regulations proposed, temporary, amended and final
  General advice: Searching in the Federal Register can be difficult. If you know the Federal Register number (## FR ####) of the rule you want to see, search for it in the "CITE" field.
• The Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) represents federal regulations organized into subject "Titles".