Government Documents
If your topic relates to government activities, laws, or regulations, government documents can provide useful information for your speech. Document authors may be experts, but beware of documents motivated by political objectives. To find government documents, use the following resources:
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (catalog.gpo.gov/
F) provides citations to federal publications, congressional hearings, and committee reports. It includes records for over 500,000 publications, a number of which can be accessed online. Congressional hearings can be particularly good research sources because they generally are held before major federal legislation is adopted, and experts on both sides of the issue are likely to testify. FDsys—
Federal Digital System (www.gpo.gov/ fdsys) contains links to congressional hearings and reports as well as the Congressional Record, which covers all debates in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Legislators often add news articles, reports, and other documentation to the Record. FDsys also includes links to U.S. Supreme Court opinions, oral arguments before the Court, and opinions of lower federal courts, as well as information issued by the executive branch of the federal government. 205
CQ Electronic Library (available through many college libraries) features information from Congressional Quarterly, which provides nonpartisan reporting on Congress and politics. CQ Weekly provides information about bills pending in Congress and articles about major issues confronting the federal government, whereas CQ Researcher Online provides extended reports on major news issues.
