Thomas, the federal legaslation information portal from the Law Library of Congress, has received an upgrade for the new year. According to their web site, improvements include:
Bookmarking and Sharing Widget
This new toolbar, found near the top of most THOMAS pages, allows users to save or share a permanent link via bookmarks, email, or social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. The toolbar also includes quick links to subscribe to THOMAS RSS feeds and to print.
Top Five Bills
The five most-searched-for bills from the past week will be listed in the center box on the right side of the homepage. Hovering the mouse over the bill number will display the title of the bill. Clicking on the bill number will bring you to the Bill Summary and Status page for that bill.
New RSS feed: Bills Presented to the President
This new RSS feed lists bills that have passed both the House and Senate and have been sent to the White House for the President's signature. If there are currently no bills awaiting signature, a list of all bills signed into law thus far during the current Congress will be produced.
To see a complete list of RSS feeds and email updates available through the Library of Congress, please visit Library of Congress RSS Feeds and Email Subscriptions. The Law Library feeds are listed under "Topics."
Contacting Members of Congress
It's now easier to contact your Members of Congress. A link to this page of tips about how to contact your Representative or Senator is included on the homepage.
Tip of the Week
Each week, a new tip about using THOMAS will be displayed on the right-hand side of the THOMAS homepage, below the “Top Five” list. Following the link within the tip will display in-depth information on that topic.
Bill Text PDFs
We have made changes to bill text display pages to make the PDF more visible and accessible. Clicking on a PDF link will bring you to the Government Printing Office (GPO) PDF for a specific version of a bill.
Increased Timeout Interval
Search results within THOMAS are displayed on temporary pages. In response to your feedback, we have increased the timeout from 5 minutes to 20 minutes.
