National Organizations & Programs

• Federal Government
  • GovTrack.us: GovTrack.us is a tool by Civic Impulse, LLC to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting and innovating government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology. You'll find here the status of U.S. federal legislation, voting records in the Senate and House of Representatives, information on Members of Congress, district maps, as well as congressional committees and the Congressional Record.
  • USAspending.gov: USAspending.gov, a re-launch of www.fedspending.org, provides this information to the public, as collected from federal agencies, in an easy to use website. The data is largely from sources: the Federal Procurement Data System, which contains information about federal contracts; and the Federal Assistance Award Data System, which contains information about federal financial assistance such as grants, loans, insurance, and direct subsidies like Social Security.
  • govPluse:  GovPulse is a Federal Register browser. The Federal Register is the official journal of the federal government of the United States. In it, you find any kind of notice, notification and solicitation that a federal agency puts out. GovPulse parses it and gives you a way to browse the tens-of-thousands-of-pages-log register by agency, category or date.
  • Data.gov: Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets. The data catalogs will continue to grow as datasets are added. Federal, Executive Branch data are included in the first version of Data.gov.
  • USA.gov : The U.S. Government’s Official Web Portal

    On the usa.gov site, you can access information about all aspects of the United States’ government, including on the federal, state, local, and tribal level.  This includes an A-Z Agency Index, which allows you to find relevant governmental agencies and offices.  You may research by topic, using a comprehensive listing (sidebar).  This doesn’t stop at federal level information (though that may be more prevalent); on the local level, you can look up in-person service centers, majors, statistics and more.

  • Committee on Ways and Means  This website, part of the House of Representatives’ work, allows you to access information on the U.S. House, Senate, legislative process, how to write your Representative, and more.  This may be helpful if you’re trying to find or track specific legislative efforts in Congress.

  • Congress.org  Use this site to find information like who are your state Senators, Representatives, and legislators. You can then follow links to find out their phone numbers, offices, and more.   With the Local Elected Officials Director (left sidebar), you can even look up township or city officials, committee members, and office information.  You can also find letters and messages to elected officials (or later write some).  You can also find media, bills, and other information.
  • GovFresh — Government 2.0: GovFresh is a live feed of official news from U.S. Government Twitter, YouTube, RSS, Facebook, Flickr accounts and more, all in one place.
  • FedThread:  a new way of interacting with the Federal Register. FedThread gives you: (a) collaborative annotation: Attach a note to any paragraph of the Federal Register; start a conversation; (b) advanced search: Search the Federal Register (back to 2000) on full text, by date, agency, and other fields; and (c) customized feeds: Turn any search into an RSS or email feed, which will send you any new items that match the search query.

• Think Tanks / Research Centers

  • Governing.com

    As a resource for states and localities, particularly with information for professionals dealing with public policy issues, this is a great place to start. Key features include news stories, statistics and web sites.  Try the State and Local sourcebook (sidebar:http://sourcebook.governing.com/) which has a searchable database of a compendium of data (such as budgets) on the states and the largest U.S. municipalities.  For those of you focusing on small localities, this information can still point you in the right direction for identifying policy options and issues to address in your research and meetings locally. 

  • The Riley Guide to Nonprofits, Foundation, and ThinkTanks (scroll down a bit for Think Tanks listings)

• National Associations / Advocacy
  • Results.org  and http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=457)

    Results is a non-profit organization that engages ordinary citizens of all ages, backgrounds, and perspectives in working to affect policy and legislation in order to reduce poverty and its worst effects both in the U.S. and globally.  They have a resource-laden website, including a very well-developed set of links and tools for research.  Check especially LINKS on the left sidebar.

  • National Governors Association - Center for Best Practices offers studies and issue briefs in Education, Environment, Health, Homeland Security & Technology, and Social, Economic, & Workforce Programs

  • CampusProgress.org: Campus Progress, part of the Center for American Progress, works to help young people -- advocates, activists, journalists, artists -- make their voices heard on issues that matter.  

  • CLASP: research, policy analysis, technical assistance, and advocacy on issues related to economic security and family stability for low-income parents, children, and youth.

• Other

  • Govtrack.us  

    This is an independent website for tracking the United States Congress, helping you follow the status of federal legislation and the activities of your senators and representatives. Data is collected from the official government websites via automated processes daily.  This site allows you to track bills, legislators, votes, and more, specifically focusing on the current United States Congress.  You can use email or RSS feeds to create trackers on issues you follow. 

  • GovTwit Directory 

  • GovSpot

    This is a directory of government information, including information arranged by subject and a section of frequently asked questions.  Use the top searchbar to find out how your state government is organized, for example.  The simple organization of this site can help you get oriented in your research process.

  • ThisWeKnow:  Our mission is to present the information the U.S. government collects about every community. By publishing this data in an easy to understand and consistent manner, we seek to empower citizens to act on what's known.

     

Research Reports / Policy Analysis

• Almanac of Policy Issues  

  This is a place to find background information, archived documents, and links on major U.S. public policy issues.  A simple (google-like) search field allows you to type in a few words.  The findings will often include full issue briefs, as well as concise papers that provide context and background on an issue.  Try it out with the keywords ‘school reform,’ ‘gun control,’ or ‘homelessness’ to get started.  A tip on keywords:  try to think about words you’ve seen in your research, in the newspaper, current affairs, or even in class.

• Center for Policy Alternatives

  This website is “of, by, and for state legislators” and provides background information on progressive policy issues. Note that as an explicitly progressive (e.g., liberal) resource, you should not use it as your only source to create an objective result.  You can find information on important state issues and leaders.
• National Conference of State Legislatures  This is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the U.S. 50 states, commonwealths, and territories.   Provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on key state issues.  Under the tab “State & Federal Issues,” try accessing the “Issue Areas: A to Z” to find overviews on a comprehensive array of topics.  You can also find information about legislators, staff, meetings, and more.
• INFOmine 

  This searchable database helps access scholarly internet resource collections on a topic. INFOMINE is a unique Web resource featuring well organized access to important university level research and educational tools on the Internet. A virtual library, INFOMINE is notable for its collection of annotated and indexed links. The site is built by librarians and is maintained by the University of California, Riverside. Try “school reform” for example, and you connect to 48 expert-selected resources with information, including non-profit organizations, research institutes, governmental agencies and more.

• SuDoc

  SuDoc & Agency List of Internet Titles is a list of links to federal government publications online, mostly on the World Wide Web (WWW).   Agency homepage, overview, or gateway type web pages which in turn organize other pages on the agency's website are listed first. Statistical databases are listed. Agency index or table of contents web pages which collate agency reports, papers, studies, series, etc. are included. Individual documents are included if they have a reputation for high use.  

Statistical Data

• USA.gov  Government's link page for statistical information at state and local levels.

• American FactFinder

  This is the Census Bureau's search page for Decennial Census data, including the 1990 and 2000 Censuses. It also includes data from the American Community Survey, which is conducted annually between decennial censuses, the five year Economic Census, and the Population Estimates Program.

• Census Bureau Web Site

  Subtitled "the official statistics," this website bills itself as "your source for social, demographic and economic information."  Here, you can look up information about population, density, demographics, income, education level, and so on, even by county and tract.  Try it!  You can look at a map of the United States by such factors as educational attainment and reposition the map on various levels. 

• CenStats

  Comprehensive statistical information including Building Permits, Census Tract Street Locator,  County Business Patterns, International Trade Data, Detailed Occupation by Race, Hispanic Origin and Sex, USA Counties, and Public Law 94-171 Data on Age by Race and Hispanic Origin.

• Gapminder: Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.

• Stateline.org

  This site has put together a list of state data organized by issue, and it also contains more journalistically written articles (such as Backgrounders) about issues in current events.  Here, you will find useful links to essential information from government, academia, and think tanks. The site provides information about political activity in the 50 state capitals.

  Stateline.org is one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center, which funds projects that generate information for the public interest.

• State and Local Governments on the Net

  If you’re looking for state, local, and city government information, this site provides convenient access to the web sites of thousands of state agencies and city and county governments.  Use the search field for “Local Government” (third down) to find information by county in your state.  After you find a particular county, you can access a municipality or city (e.g., try New Jersey, Middlesex County, Princton) and find its budget, revenue and appropriation summaries, directory, and more.

   

  One particularly helpful element may be to contact the governor or lieutenant governor for state-related information.  You can look them up at: http://www.statelocalgov.net/50states-gov-ltgov.cfm.  From state sites, you can find departments, agencies, and more.

   

Funding Opportunities

Miscellaneous

• Simmons Library 

  Here you can find a highly selective list of resources that will help you find journalism resources (actually part of Simmons College’s library). Also included are links to guides on related topics. They suggest that you contact a (local) librarian for help using the resources listed in this guide or for help finding additional information that you may need.  You can access and Almanac of Policy Issues, collections from the Congressional Quarterly.

• Science Daily  This is a remarkably wide-ranging, easy-to-search, free database collection of research news.

• Making Policy Public: CUP's series of foldout posters that use graphic design to explore and explain public policy. Making Policy Public is published four times a year. Each poster is the product of a commissioned collaboration between a designer and an advocate.