Boley Law Library: Reference Material: Federal Government

Resources about the Federal Government

Our American Government
This publication continues to be a popular introductory guide for American citizens and those of other countries who seek a greater understanding of our heritage of democracy. The question-and-answer format covers a broad range of topics dealing with the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of our Government as well as the electoral process and the role of political parties.

Resources about Congress

House Rules and Manual
The House Rules and Manual is published by the House Parliamentarian's Office. This document is formally entitled Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and Rules of the House of Representatives and contains the fundamental source material for parliamentary procedure used in the House of Representatives, including: the Constitution of the United States; applicable provisions of Jefferson's Manual; rules of the House;
provisions of law and resolutions having the force of rules of the House; and pertinent decisions of the Speakers and other presiding officers of the House and Committee of the Whole interpreting the rules and other procedural authority used in the House of Representatives.
Senate Manual
The Senate Manual, prepared during the second session of each Congress by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, contains the standing rules, orders, laws, and resolutions affecting the Senate, as well as copies of historical U.S. documents, such as Jefferson's Manual, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution of the United States, et cetera. and selected statistical information on the Senate and other Government entities. It is generally issued each Congress as Senate Document 1.
more...less...
FDsys contains the 104th, 106th, 107th, 110th and 112th Senate Manuals. There are no records of the 105th, 108th, 109th, and 111th Senate Manuals, and Congress has made no known plans for their production.
Congressional Directory The Congressional Directory is the official directory of the U.S. Congress, prepared by the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP). It presents: Short biographies of each member of the Senate and House, listed by state or district. Committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers for Members of Congress. 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.

Federal Agency Statistics

Public Land Statistics Public Land Statistics annual reports provide information on: land resources and Information; healthy and productive lands; commercial uses and revenues generated; recreation and leisure activities; natural and cultural heritage preservations; and public health, safety, and resource protection.
Yearbook of Immigration Statistics The Yearbook of Immigration Statistics is a compendium of tables that provides data on foreign nationals who, during a fiscal year, were granted lawful permanent residence (i.e., admitted as immigrants or became legal permanent residents), were admitted into the United States on a temporary basis (e.g., tourists, students, or workers), applied for asylum or refugee status, or were naturalized. The Yearbook also presents data on immigration enforcement actions, including alien apprehensions, removals, and returns

Federal Crime Statistics

Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program
National Institute of Justice Annual Reports
Bureau of Justice Statistics BJS collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.
Capital Punishment
Criminal Victimization in the United States
Data.gov Data.gov is the home of the U.S. Government’s open data. Here you can find Federal, state and local data, tools, and resources to conduct research, build apps, design data visualizations, and more.
Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics: 1985-2011 Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics (EZAJCS) was developed to facilitate independent analysis of national estimates of the nearly 40 million delinquency cases processed by the nation's juvenile courts between 1985 and 2011. With this application, users can perform unique analyses on the age, sex, and race of juveniles involved in these cases as well as the referral offense, the use of detention, adjudication and case disposition. Users can also view pre-formatted tables describing the demographic characteristics of youth involved in the juvenile justice system and how juvenile courts process these cases.
FBI Crime Statistics The FBI regularly publishes or contributes to a series of statistical crime reports and publications, detailing specific offenses and outlining trends that can help you better understand crime threats both nationally and locally.
Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report The National Report presents comprehensive information on juvenile crime, violence, and victimization and on the juvenile justice system. This OJJDP National Report brings together the latest available statistics from a variety of sources and includes numerous tables, graphs, and maps, accompanied by analyses in clear, nontechnical language.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data The mission of the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) is to facilitate research in criminal justice and criminology, through the preservation, enhancement, and sharing of computerized data resources; through the production of original research based on archived data; and through specialized training workshops in quantitative analysis of crime and justice data.
National Corrections Reporting Program The National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) collects offender-level administrative data annually on prison admissions and releases, and yearend custody populations, and on parole entries and discharges in participating jurisdictions. Demographic information, conviction offenses, sentence length, minimum time to be served, credited jail time, type of admission, type of release, and time served are collected from individual prisoner records. The collection began in 1983 and is conducted annually.
Survey of State Criminal History Information Systems
Bureau of Justice Statistics

Special Interest Groups

National Environmental Scorecard
The League of Conservation Voters' National Environmental Scorecard provides objective, factual information about the most important environmental legislation considered and the corresponding voting records of all members. The Scorecard represents the consensus of experts from about 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who select the key votes on which members of Congress should be scored. LCV scores votes on the most important issues each year, including energy, global warming, public health, public lands and wildlife conservation, and spending for environmental programs.

Research Help

We're here to help. Contact a research librarian for help with an assignment, project, or resource.

Hours:
Mon-Fri, 11am-4pm
503-768-6688
lawlib@lclark.edu

Reference Hours