Politics Research Guide

News briefs, reports on current campaigns and issues, and membership information for this human rights organization.

From the US State Department, these handy guides provide information on a country's leaders, politics, economy, and relations with the US.

This US State Department site contains links to US policies on promoting democracy and human rights. Recent congressional activities are tracked.

Brief entries on other countries' political, economic, military, and geographic features.

The successor to the venerable THOMAS site from the Library of Congress, Congress.gov allows you to track current federal legislation, look up recent public laws, and directs you to information on current members of Congress. Also provides access to the Congressional Record from recent years.

Extensive public documents site on U.S. defense policy, military analysis, nuclear non-proliferation, biological weapons, space policy, cyber security, and related issues. Contains agency reports, congressional hearings, and special studies.

Track the voting patterns of elected state and federal officials. Search by issues, politician's name, or by your ZIP+4 code for a list of all of your public officials. Site has a built-in ZIP+4 finder if you don't know all 9 digits.

The Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) is the nation’s premier collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management.

From their site: "PolitiFact started in 2007 as an election-year project of the Tampa Bay Times (then named the St. Petersburg Times), Florida’s largest daily newspaper. From the beginning, PolitiFact focused on looking at specific statements made by politicians and rating them for accuracy. PolitiFact is run by the editors and journalists who make up the PolitiFact team."

About Snopes: "Snopes got its start in 1994, investigating urban legends, hoaxes, and folklore. As demand for reliable fact checks grew, so did Snopes. Now it’s the oldest and largest fact-checking site online, widely regarded by journalists, folklorists, and readers as an invaluable research companion. Snopes.com is an independent publication under the company “Snopes Media Group Inc.,” which is owned by Chris Richmond and Drew Schoentrup (each owning 50%)."

From their site: "We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding. FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania."

Here you'll find C-SPAN programs by frequently searched categories, a selection of most popular searches, some well-received "fast finds", and a look into the archive at the most popular programs (by online views) for each day of the year. To customize your search of the C-SPAN Video Library, please type a keyword, a name, the organization or congressional bill you're seeking, into the search box near the top of any page on C-SPAN.org.