Research Tools!

I get emails from readers all the time asking for the bill numbers of certain pieces of legislation or wondering where they can find out a status of a particular piece of legislation. Sometimes I can tell them. Sometimes, I don't know because the bill hasn't been formally introduced, processed, and recorded yet (if a bill number doesn't appear in the story, it's not because I don't want to give it to you. It's because I don't have it.). But I always point them to an online search engine run by the Library of Congress called Thomas. You can search by bill name, bill number, by legislator, and by Congress. It's got the full text of bills, as well as their complete status. It's not quite a Google for government. But for complicated, arcane information, it's pretty good. I'm sure some of you are familiar with Thomas, but for those of you who aren't, enjoy!