Nursing 620
Researching Federal Legislation

These print and electronic sources will help you with your second assignment on conducting a legislative critique.  They will help you choose a piece of legislation, learn about the effects of that legislation,  and find information about becoming an advocate for a piece of legislation.

For an explanation of how our laws are made (at the federal level) please look at the brochure "How our Laws Are Made" from the Thomas site. http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html/.  A very basic look at the process for a bill becoming a law can be found at: http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/gilly/Schoolhouse_Rock/HTML/history/bill.html --it's entertaining and informative (unfortunately they've had to remove the sound files) but it is a great review!
 

Please feel encouraged to ask at the Library reference desk as you start your research for further assistance.  Because the desk can become very busy, you may wish to leave your question with one of the librarians during the day so that we can start helping you before you arrive (212-346-1331 or x1331 Birnbaum or 914-773-3381 or x3381 Mortola).  You may also send e-mail to a librarian at Birnbaum or Mortola.

Choosing a piece of legislation
You may choose either national or  state proposed or enacted legislation.  The Internet provides a wonderful opportunity to search for the names and numbers of these bills.  You will also find the name of the sponsor and, at times, the current status of the bill from these sites.

Federal Legislation

Thomas' Legislation on the Internet
URL:  http://thomas.loc.gov/
Select 108th or previous under Legislation to choose by topic. Choose  Health Policy or search for other topics using the word/phrase box. Either option will allow you to view a list of recently proposed bills on these subjects.  The name of the sponsor of the bill, along with a brief annotations appears on the initial screen.  Clicking on the number of the bill will give you options to view the text, view the committees listening to the initial proposal, view cosponsors, view amendments to the bill and so forth.  Clicking on the name of sponsor will retrieve all other bills or amendments sponsored by that Congress person for the year.

 Example:  Major Legislation, 108th Congress, Topic, S.1344

National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html
Look here for links to the Public Papers of the Presidents, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents online, to search a catalog of recent public laws, for the Federal Register (official daily publication for Rules, Proposed Rules, and Notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as Executive Orders and other Presidential Documents), etc.

U.S. Supreme Court Rulings
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com
Browse this site to review case summaries, landmark cases, briefs and opinions of current cases before the United States Supreme Court. The Docket for the previous three months and upcoming cases is also available.

FirstGov.gov
http://firstgov.gov
This site calls itself the "Official website for searching the U.S. Government. The Interesting Topics include Healthy People with links to Health Insurance and Disease information. You may search this site or browse.

Health Hippo
URL:  http://hippo.findlaw.com/
Find the sections of the U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, Legislation, news reports and organizations affecting many health related issues.  Select from a list of topics to view the materials available on this very well organized site.


State and Local Government Sites

State and Local Government on the Net
http://www.piperinfo.com/state/index.cfm
This site has links to all state government sponsored sites. Browse by state, Federal Resources, and National Organizations.

New York Bills

New York State Assembly Legislative Information System
URL:  http://assembly.state.ny.us/ALIS/
Click on NY State bill information and conduct a keyword search for bills.  Consider searching very broadly for terms like "health" or "medical".  You will retrieve a list of bills with the keyword or keywords that you have entered.  Clicking on the bill number will then allow you to retrieve a summary, list of actions taken, votes, memoranda and the text of the bill.  Sponsors and cosponsors are also listed.

 McKinney's Session Laws of New York
 Birnbaum Library Ref.  K345.22 .N48ms
 Provides the text of the laws passed by the New York legislature.
 

New Jersey Bills

New Jersey Legislature HomePage
URL: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/
Select Bills (for either legislative session) and then Bill Subject. To view last year's bills you need to be able to read in Envoy format.  For the current year's bills, you may view them in HTML, Adobe Acrobat or Envoy.  The date the bill was introduced and the name(s) of the sponsor(s) are provided.

Congressional Quarterly Weekly
Ref. JK1.C6632 (print)  and indexed in Academic Search Premier.
This very helpful weekly report covers all of the legislation being discussed on Capital Hill.  It provides background to the item and a roll call, telling you how individuals voted.

Congressional Quarterly Almanac
Ref JK1.C66
Chronicles the course of major legislation and national politics for the preceeding year. (Compilation of CQ Weekly).

Environmental Newslink
http://www.caprep.com/stateleg.htm/  This directory contains links to states with legislative information available on the Net. Some states have more information available than others.

Academic Search Premier
http://library.pace.edu; Databases, Academic Search Premier
Try various keywords to locate the full text and citations of articles.

GPO Access (Government Printing Office)
http://www.access.gpo.gov
GPO Access provides access to full text congressional and executive agency documentation, including the Congressional Record and the Federal Register, congressional bills and resolutions, congressional documents and reports, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and Economic Indicators.

Health Reference Center Academic
http://library.pace.edu; Databases, Health Reference Center.
 Try the subject headings:
Bills, legislative
Patients bill of rights
Health insurance industry
Managed care plans

Lexis/Nexis Universe
http://library.pace.edu/;  Databases, Lexis/Nexis Universe
Search both for newspaper articles and legal news.  Select either General News U.S. News from the NEWS Section or News unders the MEDICAL section.  You may wish to search law reviews as well, although these articles can  be very complex.  Searching Major Newspapers under General News will allow a full text search of the New York Times.  Also consider searching regional sources when searching for state information.

MedWeb
http://www.medweb.emory.edu/medweb/
MedWeb, is a catalog of health related web sites, maintained by the Emory  Health Sciences Center Library to
 provide access to biomedical  information to improve education, research and patient care.

National Journals
Reports on activities of both legislative and executive branches. Available from Periodical Abstracts Research II. Conduct an advanced search and include "National Journal" in "publication title".

Periodical Abstracts Research II
http://library.pace.edu; Databases, Periodical Abstracts Research II.
Conduct an advanced search and include "National Journal" in "publication title".

U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News
Ref. K345.21 .Un33
Provides the full text of public laws enacted by Congress.  Following each session you will find volumes which contain the legislative histories of some of this legislation. The history may consist of committee reports, conference reports, joint explanatory statements and statements by legislators and a discussion of the purpose of the legislation.

 

Nursing World:  Legislative Branch http://www.nursingworld.org/gova/
Click on either State or Federal to access information about current legislation.  Also provides information on the ANA-PAC (the American Nursing Association's Political Action Committee) and contact information for your representatives in the state and federal government.

Key Contact Program Grassroots Legislative Guide
http://www.canpweb.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=13
Very helpful site. Can help if you are researching the following topics: nurse practitioner, nurse practitioner legislation or legislative education. Has links to sites under the topics nursing, government resources, legislative education, major political parties' official sites, lobbying information, Health legislation,  and misc legislative information.

NYSNA:  New York State Nurse's Association  http://www.nysna.org/
In addition to finding information about this association and its members, you may find current legislation about which the organization has taken a stand.

Community Service Society of New York http://www.cssny.org/
Provides a summary of some of the legal issues addressed by this community service organization.

American Academy of Nurse Practitioners http://www.aanp.org/
Provides links to descriptions of recently passed and pending legislation.  Also provides information on contacting your representative.

Project Vote Smart http://www.vote-smart.org/
Provides links to the voting records of members of Congress, biographical data, performance evaluations, and issue positions.  Search by name, state, or zip code to identify your representatives.  Use its CongressTrack  feature to find the status of current legislation, view the various committee reports and see the list of members of each Congressional Committee, read the Congressional Record, find links to Congressional Organizations and Congressional Agencies.  Also learn about ways to contact Congress.   A similar, though less thorough site, is CapWeb (http://www.capweb.net/).
 

---

**To find citations, abstracts, and selected full-text articles about your legislation in scholary journals and newspapers, please use the databases listed under Nursing/Medicine (choose a subject) on the Library Databases page.

---

Citing your research:

APA (American Psychological Association) format is required for your bibliography and citations. Electronic guidelines are available on the APA http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html webpage. Print guidelines are available in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 5th Edition. (Birnbaum Library Reserve BF76.7 .A46 2001 and Mortola Ready Ref BF76.7 .P83 2001).