Legislative Process

Action:

Members of the House or Senate introduce bills for consideration. The bills are considered by each house separately first. The President, a member of the Cabinet, or head of a Federal agency can also propose legislation.

Sources for recent bills:

CQ.com on Congress

Tracks 104th (1995-1996)  Congress - present.

GPO Access Congressional Bills

Available from the 103rd (1993-1994) Congress - present.

Lexis Nexis Congressional

Choose "Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws" from the left sidebar. Legislative histories of bills from 91st (1969-1970) Congress - present.; text and status of bills from 101st Congress- present.

THOMAS: Bills, Resolutions

Texts of bills from the 101st (1989) Congress - present, and bill summary status from 1973. 

Sources for older bills:

Full text of early bills, before amendment and passage, or especially if they "died", can be difficult to find.  Here are some suggested resources.   

Congressional bills

96th-106th Cong.  (Y 1.4/1: Public Documents and Maps microfiche, 3rd floor Bostock)

Congressional Record

X 1.1:  1873 - 1913 Public Documents & Maps microfiche/ 1913-2004  Public Documents & Maps, U.S. Documents

Congressional Globe

From 1833 - 1873

Register of Debates

From 1824 -1837

Annals of Congress

From 1789 - 1824

U.S. Congressional Serial Set

House and Senate Reports