Oxford LibGuides: US Government Publications: Online Resources

General sources

govinfo
US Government Printing Office online access to government information. Collects and archives publications from all three branches of government. Many are available back to the 1990s with older content increasingly being added.
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Includes:
Online version of Congressional Record
House and Senate Journals
Partial coverage of Congressional documents and reports.
Congressional Commitee Hearings (1985-) and Committee Prints
Text of Bills (partial)
Statutes at large and United States Code
Official Congressional Directory
Public Papers of the US Presidents (1995-)
Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations and Budget and Economic Report of the US President (1995-)
Congress.gov
Legislative information from the Law Library of Congress. Includes legislation and voting records from 1973-, Biographical Directory the United States Congress, and the Congressional Record and Congressional Hearings from 1995-.
govtrack.us
Online service for tracking legislation in Congress. Also includes the text of bills and resolutions (all current, partial historic) and historic vote information.

Key Congressional sources

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation (Library of Congress)
Library of Congress hosted webpage, includes historical records up to 1875. Includes:
Partial coverage of Congressional Record and predecessors.
Senate and House Journals
Journals and letters for the Continental Congress
Text of Bills and Resolutions.
C-SPAN video library
Access to the archives of C-SPAN, dating back to 1987. Not all content is free to stream online. Searchable.
Congressional Research Service Reports
Background reports compiled by the Congressional Research Service to provide Members of Congress with factual information and data in support of their work.
Some reports (mainly 2000-) available online via:
CRSreports.com
Every CRS Report
Federation of American Scientists
Major Studies & Issue Briefs 1916-1974 on microfilm VHL
Official Congressional Directory Official directory of the U.S. Congress, with short biographies of each member of the Senate and House, listed by state or district, and additional data, such as committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers. It also lists officials of the courts, military establishments and other Federal Departments and agencies, including D.C. government officials, governors of states and territories, foreign diplomats, and members of the press, radio and television galleries.
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1997- online via govinfo
1871-1919, 1925- in print VHL
Biographical directory of the United States Congress, 1774-
Searchable online directory of Congressmen (Representatives, Senators, Delegates, Vice Presidents, Presidents, Speaker of the House etc). Can also be searched by state or party. Includes information about access to further research sources/papers.

Key Presidential and other executive resources

American Presidency Project
Online resource that has consolidated, coded and organized the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Washington-Taft), Public Papers of the Presidents (Hoover-Bush) and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (Clinton-Obama), as well as other documents relating to the presidency and presidential elections (such as national party platforms)
Presidential Libraries (National Archives)
A gateway to the websites of the Presidential Libraries, which are the repositories of the papers, records and historical materials of the US Presidents from Hoover onwards. Often they also include collections of Presidential artifacts, and their websites provide access to some digitised materials.
Presidential papers at the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress holds the private papers of most US presidents prior to 1929. Some have been digitised and are available online.
FRASER
FRASER is a digital library of U.S. economic, financial, and banking history—particularly the history of the Federal Reserve System. Includes previous editions of the Budget and Economic Report of the President (1995-).
Popular names of US government reports
Searchable database of US Government reports indexed with their popular names. Entering a popular name into the search box will bring up the full bibliographic reference, with proper title and SuDoc reference number. There are also downloadable PDF versions of the print guide (1st-4th eds) produced by the Library of Congress.
Department of Defense Annual Reports (1948 to 1996) and Military Branch Budget Justification Books (1980 to 1996)
National Transportation Safety Board Orders, Petitions, and Decisions
The Law Library of Congress has digitized a collection of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) decisions, orders, and petitions. NTSB conducts independent accident investigations and decides pilots' and mariners' certification appeals. The years of the decisions span from 1973-1982, with the majority falling between 1977 and 1981.
Catalog of US Government Publications
From 1976 onwards, includes references to recent government publications, Su Doc numbers and links to electronic copies when available.

Key foreign relations resources

Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)
Presents the official documentary historical record of major US foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Documents are from Presidential libraries, Departments of State and Defense, the National Security Council, CIA, Agency for International Development and other foreign affairs agencies as well as the private papers of individuals involved in formulating US foreign policy.
1861- also online via the State Department (latest volumes cover Carter and Reagan administrations)
1861-1960 also online via the University of Wisconsin
Texts of International Agreements to which the US is a Party (TIAS)
Official publication by the Treaty Office of the US State Department of all treaties and international agreements to which the US is a party.
1996- (and some earlier) online via the State Department
Some treaties 1982-2006 available online from the State Department's FOIA site
Frontline Diplomacy: the Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (Library of Congress)
Transcripts of interviews with US diplomatic personnel capture their experiences, motivations, critiques, personal analyses and private thoughts. The interviews in the collection are mostly with Foreign Service Officers, but there are also some with political appointees and other officials. Whilst some 1920s, 1930s and WWII era diplomacy is covered, most of the interviews involve post-WWII diplomacy from the late 1940s to the 1990s.

Statistics and other political resources

US Census Bureau
Includes Census Reports and Statistical Abstracts of the United States.
FedStats
Links to data and statistical publications from Federal Agencies. Historic coverage varies.
Data.gov
A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825
A searchable collection of election returns from the earliest years of American democracy, which will include all 25 states and territories that existed between 1787 and 1825. The data is very diverse and involves all offices from Federal to local levels. The bulk of the election data came from contemporary sources such as newspapers and original election ballots. Other sources include County histories that were published in the 19th century. The data was compiled by Philip Lampi.
Economic History Association Datasets
Includes historic datasets related to economic history created by researchers. Includes data on the population of the United States, labor statistics and public debt.
FRED
Short for Federal Reserve Economic Data, FRED is an online database consisting of hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from scores of national, international, public, and private sources.
ALFRED
ALFRED, ArchivaL Federal Reserve Economic Data, is a collection of vintage versions of U.S. economic data. In general, economic data for past observation periods are revised as more accurate estimates become available. As a result, previous vintages of data can be superseded and may no longer be available from various data sources. ALFRED makes it possible to gather data as reported by a source on past dates in history.
Commission on Presidential Debates: Debate History
The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2008
More than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952.
AmDocs: Documents for the study of American history
Provides access to primary source documents which are relevant to the study of the history of the United States. A few of the texts are hosted locally, but most of the items in the list are links to other websites. Documents date from 1492 to the present, presented in chronological order and are divided into broad sections.
Avalon Project: documents in law, history and diplomacy (Yale Law School)
Provides access to digital documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government from the 17th-21st centuries.
American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I
The Nation's Forum recordings were made between 1918 and 1920 in an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans; in most cases, they are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. Topics are based on World War I and post-war topics.

Library of Congress

Library of Congress Digital Collections

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, the main research arm of the U.S. Congress, and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. The LOC continues to digitise material, especially materials considered of national importance. Key political and social figures may have their papers digitised by the Library of Congress, alongside some papers from executive branches and organisations, and archived webpages of government websites.

Key digitised resources include: