Principles of Public Policy
Finding Legislation
These are some of the sources you can use when initially searching for legislation on both the federal and NJ level. These might not help you "dive deep" to create a legislative history, but can help you form ideas and find interesting concepts you might want to explore further!
Tips for initially finding legislation
Sometimes you aren't sure what law, bill, or topic you'd like to write about or research. These sources are helpful in narrowing down your topic and choosing legislation.
- Congressional Publications (ProQuest)See "Congress in Context" summaries link at top of database landing page. These contain a section "Major Acts". Alternatively, for enacted legislation, select only Legislative Histories from the facets on the left and search by keyword or act name, e.g., "cyber security," "border security,", "federal highways "patriot act", etc. . For current legislation, select only Bills & Laws, from the facets on the left, and search by keyword. Also make sure you limit by Congress-the current Congress is the 117th.
- Congress.govSee the Public Laws link for lists by Congress and the Browse link at the top, to search by subject and Congress.
- GovTrack.usOn the left, enter your keyword(s), select a Congressional term,current status, subject, etc.
- CQ AlmanacContains narrative accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a congressional session. It is organized thematically.
- CQ WeeklyProvides current, non-partisan political analysis of Congress. It identifies major legislation, the issues and players, and roll call votes. This resource is also available in print to 2007 in Alexander Government Documents: DOCREF JK1.C15.
- SAM.gov-formerly the Catalog of Federal AssistanceThis site provides access to federal grants, and each entry contains a field " Authorizations" that cites the enabling legislation for the grant. Click on "Search Assistance Listings"
Finding New Jersey Legislation
Arranged by year (1998+) and by Chapter number. Citations to bills, reports, hearings, newspaper articles, etc.
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A collaborative repository of millions of books, government publications, dissertations, journals, and other published and unpublished materials. Titles published prior to 1923 and those that are open access or Creative Commons-licensed are available full-text. Other materials include limited-access searching. -- Access to the resource is unrestricted, but Rutgers affiliates can log in to gain access to additional features such as full-text download and the ability to create permanent collections
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HeinOnline [Rutgers Restricted]
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Includes extensive historical archives of state reports and state statutes.
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Law Library Microform Consortium Digital [Rutgers Restricted]
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Includes the full text of NJ laws, Attorney General Opinions and Reports, New Jersey Reports, Superior Court Reports, and other court cases, as well as Public Health Laws. Online collections are incomplete but new material is added on a continuing basis.
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New Jersey Digital Legal Library (NJDLL)
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Full text materials on NJ law and legal history. Includes NJ Administrative Reports [First Series] 1979-1991; NJ Attorney General Opinions, 1949-1998; NJ Executive Orders 1941-1990; and more. Later AG Opinions and Executive Orders are linked from this site and are available from the State of NJ.
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