100 Milestone Documents
Contains digitized images of 100 milestone documents, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, and drawn primarily from its nationwide holdings. The documents chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965. Besides offering such founding documents as the Articles of Confederation and The Declaration of Independence, the site also includes the Treaty of Paris, The Marshall Plan, the Voting Rights Act, several notable Supreme Court Cases (Dred Scott v. Sanford, Gibbons v. Ogden , etc.) and more.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Formerly called The American Memory Project, this collection contains multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text relating to the history and culture of the United States.
US Congressional Serial Set
The Serial Set is comprised of the numbered Senate and House Documents and Senate and House Reports, bound by session of Congress. The contents of the Serial Set have varied throughout the publication’s history, and at times have included House and Senate Journals, and the reports of executive departments and agencies.
Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government
A service of the Government Publishing Office (GPO), Ben's Guide is designed to inform students, parents, and educators (everybody, really!) about the Federal Government, which issues the publications and information products disseminated by the GPO’s Federal Depository Library Program.
From the White House, an explanation of the Executive Branch.
The White House
Besides information about the President, current issues are covered here as well as news, speeches, executive orders and proclamations. Past Presidents' websites can be found here.
Budget of the United States Government
Budgets online from 1996 to the present. Downloadable as a single document or by individual sections. Many of the tables are downloadable as Excel spreadsheets. Full text searching of the budget is available. Also available in the library in hardcopy and CD ROM beginning with the call number PREX 2.8: back to 1961.
U.S. Government Manual
As the official handbook of the Federal Government, the United States Government Manual provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, and boards, commissions, and committees.
The Plum Book (United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions).
Published alternately after each Presidential election, the Plum Book lists over 7,000 Federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment, nationwide. Data covers positions such as agency heads and their immediate subordinates, policy executives and advisors, and aides who report to these officials. The duties of many such positions may involve advocacy of Administration policies and programs and the incumbents usually have a close and confidential working relationship with the agency or other key officials. Online beginning with 1996.
Executive Orders and Presidential Documents
Sources and explanations compiled by the Law Librarian's Society of Washington, D.C.
Congress.gov
Provided by the Library of Congress, this resource offers access to legislative information including bills, public laws, the Congressional Record, House and Senate Committee reports, proposed legislation, roll call votes, treaties, histories, and much more. Some information dates from the 93rd Congress (1973-74) onwards. Legislative histories going back to 1952 can be found in the U.S. Code Congressional and Administration News (latest in reference, older in stacks) KF 63 .U53. The Congressional Record can also shed light on the history of a bill, although not in as much detail.
Legislative Tracking via GovTrack, BillTrack50, OpenStates, StateScape, and LegiScan (these also track state legislation).
GovInfo search.
Free public access to the full text of official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. Begin searching immediately or browse a specific collection.
Regulations.gov.
This website, which began in 2002, allows you to find, view, and comment on regulations for all Federal agencies. In December 2007 it was revamped. And from the government side, a similar site: Reginfo.gov. The public can use this site to search the the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions and Regulatory Plan, as well as current and past Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) regulatory reviews. The White House Office of Management and Budget has a webpage with more information regarding regulatory matters.
Law Librarian's Society of Washington, D.C.
Webpage with legislative resources including the publications Drafting Federal Law, and A Research Guide to the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations, as well as additional links to regulatory information.
Earmarks database from Legistorm. What's an earmark? The term "earmark" generally refers to a federal expenditure that is specifically directed to apply to a particular project or program, usually within the congressional district of the provision's author.
Michigan's U.S. Representatives [See also State of Michigan representatives under Legislative Branch at that page]
Jack Bergman (R)
House representative for the 1st Congressional District.
Gary Peters (D)
Senate representative.
Debbie Stabenow (D)
Senate representative.
Directory of the U.S. House of Representatives
Locate House representatives in Michigan or other states.
Directory of U.S. Senate Representatives
Locate Senate representatives in Michigan and other states.
Supreme Court of the United States
The official site for the U.S. Supreme Court. Included on the site are transcripts of oral arguments made from the 2000 term to present, court rules, opinions (from 2000 to present), slip opinions, speeches given by Justices, year end reports, etc. Findlaw offers a searchable database of all Supreme Court decisions since 1876. Print version of Supreme Court decisions can be found on the third floor in the Supreme Court Reporter vols. 1-94 (1882-1973) KF 101 S9 and United States Reports v. 389- (1967-present) KF 101 A3.
U.S. Courts
Links to the official sites for the Courts of Appeal, District Courts, and other specialty courts (e.g. Tax Court, U.S. Court of International Trade, etc.). Many of court sites will include written opinions, although the dates of coverage vary with each web site. Also provided is a link to a library of various publications, statistical reports, and official forms relating to the court system. Michigan is in the 6th District Court; Wisconsin is in the 7th District Court.
OYEZ
"The OYEZ Project is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices."
USAGov
Since 2002. USAGov has the most comprehensive search of government anywhere on the Internet: This is a great place to search first. On USAGov.gov, you can search more than 186 million web pages from federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and the military (Includes government domains other than .gov and .mil as well). Most of these pages are not available on commercial websites. In addition, USAGov.gov allows you to browse sites by topic and has a very handy All Topics page. Agencies and offices that cover your topic will shoe themselves with more results--go to the websites of those sources for more.
Search across up to 71 government agencies with MetaLib.
Collections include Environment, Science & Technology, Agriculture, Recreation, Travel & Transportation, and Business & Economy. You can also narrow your search to specific resources within each topic. Kind of a tricky search.
Catalog of Government Publications
Updated daily. Search this resource for online publications as you would a library catalog.
Homeland Security Digital Library
The nation's premier collection of homeland security policy and strategy related documents from federal, state, and local governments. This database is available for NMU students and faculty.
University of Michigan's Document Center
This site offers a browsable index to a wide range of governmental information and topics. Headings exist for specific topics, e.g. abortion, and broad levels of government (federal, executive branch, etc.). All levels of government--international, federal, and local--are represented. This is a very good resource; can't duplicate it, so I'll point you to it.
Access to government information: an overview
Continually updated publication from the Congressional Research Service. This is a summary of the additional ways to get at federal government information. The Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act of 1974, Government in the Sunshine Act (Sunshine Act; 5 U.S.C. §552b), and the Federal Advisory Committee Act are covered.
Citing Government Documents
Collection of links and samples from the University of Nebraska.
Below is a list of websites that gather and share government publications. These are not government websites, nor are they all still in operation (but I still have them here), but they have shed light on the hidden workings and actions of governments.
There are several entities that collect information obtained from the U.S. Government produced outside of the Government Publishing Office. In particular, the National Security Archive (which collects and displays documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA]), and The Memory Hole, which has managed to capture online documents that have been removed and web images that have been changed. A November 2004 article in Wired (by Ryan Singel) highlighted several alternate sources of government information. Here are a few of them.
Congressional Research Service Reports
These reports (CRS Reports) provide a background for upcoming/proposed legislation or a current topic of interest. There is no one, single source for them. The Dudley Knox Library has a webpage listing where these reports are found. Many are now increasingly available in the Catalog of Government Publications.
The National Security Archive
From George Washington University. Briefly, this is a physical and online collection of declassified U.S. documents that have been obtained by a variety of individuals and organizations through the Freedom of Information Act (FIOA).
OpenSecrets.org
Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, OpenSecrets is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Our mission is to track the flow of money in American politics and provide the data and analysis to strengthen democracy.
Project on Government Secrecy
From the Federation of American Scientists, the Project on Government Secrecy works to "challenge excessive government secrecy and to promote public oversight”. Ceased in 2021, but the links on that page (and the resources on the website) are worth checking out.
Sunlight Foundation
Stopped in 2020. Making government transparent and accountable. Covering (and making understandable) stories such as earmarks, court cases, lobbying, legislative issues, etc. Website has a search feature. ProPublica took up the reigns of some of their work.
Project on Government Oversight
The Project On Government Oversight (founded in 1981) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that champions good government reforms. POGO’s investigations into corruption, misconduct, and conflicts of interest achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government.
Cryptome.org
Cryptome welcomes documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular material on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national security, intelligence, and secret governance -- open, secret and classified documents -- but not limited to those. Documents are removed from this site only by order served directly by a US court having jurisdiction.
There was once a website called The Memory Hole. It is gone now. The links page from that has other resources on additional websites that dig into FOIA requests.
The Government Attic.
"Provides electronic copies of hundreds of interesting Federal Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act." Military, FBI, Congress, National Security Agency, CIA: a mixed bag. Searchable. There is a lot at this site.
Ernie Lazar FOIA Collection.
From the Internet Archive: For decades, Ernie Lazar has filed a large amount of requests under the Freedom of Information Act, related to FBI investigations of left and right wing groups, resulting in over 2,000 files, which have been scanned in and put into this collection.
American Oversight
A nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog that uses public records requests backed by litigation to fight corruption, drive accountability, and defend democracy. We believe transparency is a critical tool to promote integrity in government and to protect justice, truth, and the rule of law. Since 2017.