How to Follow Legislation in the US Congress

The Library of Congress posts information about all bills and resolutions under consideration by both houses of Congress at this address: thomas.loc.gov

The center panel of this page is depicted at left. It is easiest to find legislation by bill number, such as S4 (for Senate bills) or HR1543 (for House bills).  The bill number will always be given in any communication from the PAC about pending legislation. But you can also search by bill title or sponsoring member of Congress.

Once the search runs, click on “Bill Status and Summary” to display a page containing the following table of links:

Here are links to all of the most useful information about the bill. Among the most vital is under the link “All Congressional Actions” which gives the current status of the legislation, such as “Referred to House Judiciary Committee.”

Unfortunately, the results of such a search are temporary – you cannot save nor forward to anyone the links the search returns, because they expire and become invalid. Instead, you must repeat the search each time you want to see the information.

Another resource for tracking pending legislation is the congressional schedule and calendar, available here: thomas.loc.gov/home/schedules.html