LibGuides: Real World Research: Federal Materials

Federal Regulations & Federal Agencies

Federal Register
Published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
Daily Federal Register
The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) jointly administer the FederalRegister.gov website.
Code of Federal Regulations
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. Each volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar year and is issued on a quarterly basis.
E-CFR
The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) is a currently updated version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). It is not an official legal edition of the CFR. The e-CFR is an editorial compilation of CFR material and Federal Register amendments produced by the National Archives and Records Administration's Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and the Government Printing Office. The OFR updates the material in the e-CFR on a daily basis. The current update status appears at the top of all e-CFR web pages.
Regulations.gov
- Search for a regulation such as a proposed rule, final rule or Federal Register (FR) notice
- Submit a comment on a regulation or on another comment
- Submit an application, petition or adjudication document
- Sign up for e-mail alerts about a specific regulation
- Quickly access regulations that are popular, newly posted or closing soon-directly from the home page
- Subscribe to RSS feeds by agency of newly posted FR notices
Administrative Decisions & Other Actions - By Agency
From University of Virginia Library
Official US Executive Branch Web Sites
from Library of Congress

Legislation & Statutes

Legislation

Congress.gov
Offers access to the full text of Public Laws back to 1989. Under Bill Summary & Status, access to the text of bill digests back to 1973 is available.
GovTrack.us
GovTrack.us tracks the United States Congress and helps Americans understand what is going on in their national legislature. They publish the status of federal legislation and information about your representative and senators in Congress. Use GovTrack to track bills for updates or get alerts. They also go beyond the official record with statistical analyses, bill summaries, and other tools to put information in context.
Congressional Research Service Reports
Research papers written by the Library of Congress for the use of Congress. Provide objective, non-partisan analysis of public policy issues before the legislature. Full text PDF of reports.

Statutes

United States Statutes at Large
Typically referred to as the Statutes at Large; the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress.

The United States Code (U.S.C.) is the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. Annotated versions of the U.S.C. can be found on Lexis (United States Code Service) or on Westlaw (United States Code Annotated).

United States Code
from the Office of Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives
United States Code
from the U.S. Government Printing Office
United States Code from Cornell Legal Information Institute
This version is generated from the most recent version made available by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Courts & Legal Opinions

In addition to the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Courts of Appeals, United States District Courts and United States Bankruptcy Courts, the federal courts system also includes courts referred to as the United States Courts of Special Jurisdiction.

Check Federal Departmental and Agency web sites for Agency decisions, forms, etc. For example, see:

National Labor Relations Board

PACER

PACER
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Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator via the Internet.
Free Law Project
Free Law Project's online archive contains millions of searchable PACER documents and can be used to do deep research within a case, a topic, or a jurisdiction. The archive also now includes every free opinion on PACER.

Government Information

Government Information form the Government Printing Office