LibGuides: Government Information: Find by Information Type

Find by Type of Information

Welcome to the White House
Official website for the White House.
The Cabinet
From the White House, information and links concerning the cabinet and administration.
American Presidency Project
Database of public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks by presidents from George Washington to the present, by University of California, Santa Barbara.
Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders
Listing of presidential proclamations and executive orders by subject.
Compilation of Presidential Documents
The Compilation of Presidential Documents is the official publication of presidential statements, messages, remarks, and other materials released by the White House Press Secretary.
Executive Orders Disposition Table Index
Lists and links to executive orders from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama, with a link to more recent ones.
Public Papers of the Presidents
Public statements, documents, and other material from 1929 (Herbet Hoover) to 2016 (Barack Obama). In large PDFs, which may take time to download.

Legal Information Institute
Site includes state, federal, and international court opinions, from the Cornell Law School.
Supreme Court of the United States
Website for the Supreme Court, includes upcoming cases and links to decisions.
LII: Supreme Court Collection
From the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University. Includes all opinions of the court issued since May 1990, along with select historic decisions. See below for older decisions.
FindLaw: Supreme Court Opinions
From FindLaw, a database of Supreme Court decisions from 1760 to present.
U.S. Courts
Official site for the federal judiciary, includes links to the US Supreme Court, circuit courts, district courts, and bankruptcy courts.
Unified Judicial System of PA
Links to the PA Supreme Court, Superior Court, Commonwealth Court, Common Pleas Court, and more.

U.S. Senate
Website for the Senate. Link to bills, see floor votes, and find your senators.
U.S. House of Representatives
Website for the House. Link to bills, see floor votes, and find your representative.
Find Your Legislators
Find your legislators by typing in an address or using your current location.
Congress.gov
Goldmine of legislative information online.
GovInfo
Provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. From the Government Publishing Office (GPO).
Learn about the Legislative Process
Short one paragraph description of how the laws are made. From the House of Representatives.
GovTrack
Website that lets you set up alerts and updates on legislation that is important to you.
U.S. Code
Codification of our laws, arranged by subject.
Popular Names of Laws
Listing of popular names for laws in the U.S. Code, by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School.
Congressional Record
Full-text floor debates from 1873.
Congressional Research Service Reports
Reports on a wide-range of topics written for members of Congress. Excellent overviews of popular and controversial topics.

While it's easy to confuse patents, copyright, and trademarks, each serves a different purpose and provides different protections.

Patents
Patents are related to inventions. Someone who holds a patent has the exclusive rights to make, use, or sell something--a product, a process, a design, or even a plant. These rights last for 20 years from date of filing. The first United States patent was granted in 1790. The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in the Department of Commerce grants patents and trademarks.

Trademarks
Trademarks are words, symbols, or slogans that identify items and goods. Trademarks can be renewed indefinitely; the first trademark protection was enacted in 1905. As with patents, trademarks are issued by the Patents and Trademark Office in the Department of Commerce.

Copyright
Unlike patents and trademarks, copyright is registered by the Register of Copyrights within the Library of Congress. Copyright is intended to protect literary or creative works. For works published since 1976, copyright protects the work for the life of the author plus 50 years. Before 1976, copyright lasted 75 years.

United States Patent and Trademark Office Home Page
Information and resources for applying for and researching patents and trademarks.
How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work (PDF)
Guide from the Library of Congress.

Regulations (also known as quasi-legislation or bureaucratic laws) are rules issued by the executive agencies. They are the means by which the agencies implement laws enacted by Congress. In other words, the laws set out broad policy statements and the regulations spell out the details.

RegInfo.gov
Website of the government agency responsible for gathering and publishing information on government regulations.
Regulations.gov
The official site to make comments on proposed regulations.
Federal Register
A legal newspaper published almost daily by the National Record and Archives Administration; it contains federal regulations, proposed regulations, and executive orders and proclamations.
Unified Agenda
Also known as the Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, published twice a year (usually April and October) in the Federal Register, it summarizes the regulations and proposed regulations each agency expects to issue in the next six months.
Code of Federal Regulations
Annual codification of the regulations published in the Federal Register.

General statistical sources

Data.gov
Search across government agencies for statistical and data sets.
Data.Census.Gov
Housing, population, economic, and geographic data from the Census Bureau. Formerly known as American Factfinder.

Statistics from selected agencies

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
Data on US macroeconomic variables.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Statistics on offenders, victims, and the justice system.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Labor economic statistics.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
Air travel, freight, border crossing, and other transportation statistics.
CDC WONDER
Database for health statistics from the Centers for Disease Control.
Childstats.gov
Children and family statistics.
Division of Science Resources Statistics
From the National Science Foundation, statistics on science and engineering.
E-Stats Main Page
E-commerce page from the Census Bureau.
Economic Research Service
USDA economic research service for a safe food supply and a healthy agricultural system.
Education Demogration & Geographic Estimates (EDGE)
Information about demographics, social characteristics, and economics of children and school districts. From the Department of Education.
Energy Information Administration
National, local, and international fuel and energy statistics.
Environmental Protection Agency
Pollution and environmental statistics on national and local levels.
Federal Election Commission
Election and campaign finance statistics.
Federal Reserve System
Banking and finance statistics.
National Agricultural Statistics Service
Agricultural statistics from the Department of Agriculture.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
Education statistics from the Department of Education.
National Center for Health Statistics
From the Center for Disease Control, statistics on diseases, births, aging, and mortality.
National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics
Statistics on veterans.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Statistics on justice and substance abuse issues.
Office of Management and Budget
The office in charge of submitting the president's annual budget proposal to congress; provides budget information.
Social Security Administration, Office of Policy
Social Security statistics.
Tax Statistics
Tax statistics from the IRS.

International/Foreign Statistics

Eurostat
Statistics on European Union and candidate countries.
FAOSTAT
International production, trade, food balance sheets, fertilizer and pesticides, land use and irrigation, and population statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Oversight.gov
Publicly accessible, searchable website containing the latest public reports from Federal Inspectors General.

Data.gov
Search across government agencies for statistical and data sets.
Data.pa.gov
Search across data from state agencies
Open.science.gov
Gateway to major announcements by federal agencies that support open science initiatives, programs, and events.