Yesterday the U.S. Senate passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. You can find the full-text of the latest version of this bill on the website of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. This web page also contains a one page summary and a section by section analysis. For further commentary see: Senate passes bailout [CNN article]; Congress Struggles With Wall Street Bailout [NPR web page with several good articles]; and The Bailout: An Owner's Manual [Great Explanation from Forbes.com].

October 8: See the full-text of the law at gpoaccess.gov: H. R. 1424

Labels: banking law, congress, economy

The U.S. House of Representatives just voted to pass H.R. 3685, a bill to prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill now goes to the Senate for a vote.

Labels: congress, employment law

Some Westlaw databases that are also available for Witness Testimony:

The US Political Transcripts (USPOLTRANS) database contains verbatim transcripts from various U.S. governmental and political organizations. The database includes transcripts of Presidential news conferences, press briefings, informal Presidential statements, State, Justice and Defense Department briefings and oral testimony from important Senate and House committee hearings. In addition, speeches, news briefs and press conferences of U.S. presidential candidates, U.S. Representatives, members of Congress, foreign dignitaries, and other political, humanitarian, social, and business leaders are included. Forums covered included the National Press Club, the daily White House news briefing, the Washington Foreign Press Center, the Washington Post-Newsweek National Security Forum, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House National Security Committee, and many others. Coverage begins with February 1994.

The US Congressional Testimony (USTESTIMONY) database contains documents with information from U.S. congressional committee hearings. A document is a witness list or a transcript of oral or written statements. This database contains witness lists for U.S. Congressional committee hearings, transcripts of oral statements and written statements submitted to committees of the U.S. Congress. Witnesses called on to testify before Congressional committees are frequently business and industry leaders and experts in their fields. Researchers can use USTESTIMONY to track legislative developments, track lobbying efforts on behalf of companies and industries, and find names of potential expert witnesses. Coverage begins with January 1993.

Source: Mark Jackson, Westlaw Rep

Labels: congress, legal research

Looking for a witness's testimony before a congressional committee?
Here are a few resources:
Congressional Universe: Available to Law School students, faculty and staff. Can find congressional legislative history documents and citations to older documents. Takes a while for transcripts of testimony to show up on this database.
Lexis - CQ Transcripts database (identifier - POLTRN): The POLTRN file contains transcripts of 4 to 5 complete congressional hearings per day as well as press briefings from the State, Justice, and Defense departments, presidential news conferences and press briefings, and speeches and press conferences by national newsmakers.
Washington Post: Often posts transcripts from Congressional Committees. You may need to register on this site to access them but registration is free.

Labels: congress, legal research, lexis