Finding and Establishing Direct Links to
THOMAS and GPO Access Documents

THOMAS (http://thomas.loc.gov), the Library of Congress home page for legislative information and GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/), a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office, are the two principle sources for free Web access to U.S. government legislative and regulatory information. Unfortunately, when using the search engines on the THOMAS and GPO Access databases it becomes apparent that many times the documents found have only temporary uniform resource locator (URL) addresses as revealed by the letters "temp" somewhere in the URL or the word "retrieve" at the end of the URL. If you want to e-mail a colleague with information on the location of a specific legislative document or if you are building a Web page that includes links to specific documents on THOMAS or GPO Access, then temporary URLs will be of no use. For that you need the prespecified URL address on THOMAS or GPO Access that establishes a direct link to the document.

Generally, both THOMAS and GPO Access have prespecified URLs for making direct links to their documents on the Internet, but all too frequently it is not a straight forward matter as to how to find these URLs. This article was written to briefly explain how you can find and establish direct links to THOMAS and GPO Access documents. THOMAS and GPO Access also have guides that explain some of this information. See links under "About THOMAS" (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/example.html) and under GPO Access "Help" (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/help/linking.html).

HTML Links in General

Once a prespecified URL address is found then to establish a link, HTML coding requires you to place the URL inside of the following formula:
<a HREF="http://www.xxxxx.xxx">yyyy</a>. With "http://www.xxxxx.xxx" standing for the linked URL and "yyyy" standing for whatever you want to name the link. In either case quotation marks are not required. Many word processing software packages automatically try to make links whenever they see a phrase beginning with an "<" directly followed by "A HREF". Anything inside the arrows "<>" is not seen by persons visiting your site. What they see will be what you name the link ("yyyy") and this will be colored and underlined. Clicking on this link will lead directly to the site linked.

Links to Bill Status, Text, and Reports on Thomas

THOMAS primarily provides bill status information, bill summaries, bill sponsorships, bill texts, the Congressional Record, Congressional committee reports, and links to other documents and information.

To link to prespecified bill status & summary pages on THOMAS use the following example:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:HR01714:

In this example 106 stands for the 106^th Congress (1999-2000) and HR01714 stands for H.R. 1714, the "Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act".

You can find this prespecified URL "not" by clicking onto "Bill Status and Summary" which only leads to a temporary URL, but instead either click onto "Text of Legislation" in the temporary URL or click on "Bill Text" on the THOMAS home page, run a search to find bill text versions of H.R. 1714, click onto one of those versions, and then click on "Bill Summary and Status". Further clicks from the non-temporary site (such as those for Bill Status, Cosponsors, CRS Summary, etc.) will also lead to prespecified URLs.

Similarly, to get a prespecified URL for a bill text start by clicking onto "Bill Summary and Status" rather than "Bill Text". Run a search (use the bill number) and then click on "Text of Legislation". For instance, to find a specific URL of the bill text for H.R. 1714, you type in the bill number in the area provided under bill summary & status, and with that result you click on "Text of Legislation" yielding a specific URL link with a screen that shows you which versions of H.R. 1714 are available;

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.R.1714:

However, a click onto one of the versions will generally only lead you to temporary URL, but you can use the information on the screen to get a prespecified URL for one of the versions;

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.R.1714.IH: (as introduced in the House)

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.R.1714.RH: (as reported in the House from Committee)

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.R.1714.EH: (as engrossed (passed) in the House)

H.R. 1714 was a companion bill to S. 761 and it was the enrolled version of S. 761 that was sent to the President and signed into law.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:S.761.ENR:.

To get a prespecified URL for the accompanying report to H.R. 1714 do not use the Committee Report area. Rather go into the summary and status file for the bill, click on "Bill Status" and then click on the relevant report number somewhere in the chronology to that bill. Prespecfied links to committee reports are also linked from text of related bills on THOMAS.

H. Rept. 106-341 (parts 1 & 2), to accompany H.R. 1714 has this prespecified URL;
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/R?cp106:FLD010:@1(hr341):

THOMAS has the text of committee reports back to the 104th Congress (1995-1996). It has the text of bills back to the 101st Congress (1989-1990) and it has a summary/status page for each bill back to the 93rd Congress (1973-1974).

To obtain a prespecified URL for the Congressional Record debate discussing H.R. 1714 first find the date of the debate (see Bill Status) and click onto the House section in the "Most Recent Issue" area for that date (November 9, 1999).
See http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ B?r106:@FIELD(FLD003+h)+@FIELD(DDATE+19991109).

Scroll down the headings in the date listed and click on the items needed. You may have to use your browser's Edit/Find function. Note that the items linked are temporary URLs. To get a more precise URL go back to the date in "Most Recent Issue" area and click on the Daily Digest section. Scroll down the Chamber Action area of the Senate or House until you find the relevant item and click on the pages indicated. These pages provide a more precise prespecified URL, but they are links to pages and thus may include other material on the page or pages. URLs to pages within long documents will still include the entire document.

See http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r106:FLD001:H11732-H11755,H11762-H11763

Note that the 106th Congress is represented in "R?r106:" and that page numbers are represented by "H11732-H11755" and "H11762-H111763". Using this formula with different page numbers you can establish prespecified links to any material in the Congressional Record beginning with the 106th Congress (1999-2000). However, since this electronic version of the Congressional Record is indexed by Congress and not by Congressional session a slightly modified pagination sequence is used for the second session of a Congress (the even year). In the second session of a Congress the first 9,999 pages will have a "5" in front of the number with any needed zeroes in between. The next 10,000 pages up to 19,999 pages will have "6" instead of a "1", and the next 10,000 pages after that will have a "7" instead of a "2" up to 29,999 pages. House, Senate, and Extension of Remarks pages per session have never gone beyond 24,000 page numbers (see Resumes of Congressional Activity: 91st Congress through the current Congress). Note that the pagination numbers are for the daily edition of the Congressional Record, not the bound edition which is in straight numeric order.

Extension of remarks are also listed at the end of each day's Daily Digest. However, to obtain remarks delivered on the House or Senate floor not listed in the Daily Digest search the Congressional Record and use the page number found in the above formula.

Before the 106th Congress links to Congressional Record items in the "Most Recent Issue" on THOMAS provide more direct prespecified URLs using a representation for the date and an item number.
See the document URLs in the following congresses: http://thomas.loc.gov/r105/r105.html, http://thomas.loc.gov/r104/r104.html, etc.)

To gain access to earlier congresses simply change the numerals in the URL of the "Most Recent Issue" to match the Congress you are interested in (as in http://thomas.loc.gov/r102/r102.html).

GPO Access has many legislative and regulatory files including Congressional bill texts, Congressional committee reports, Public Laws, the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, the United States Code and other files. And although GPO Access has fairly long URLs for many of it's documents, generally after running a search, the document addresses obtained are prespecified and you can use those URLs in any document in which you want to link. As noted above, GPO Access has a website (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/help/linking.html.) that explains how to establish links to most of its database files. The URL formula used by GPO Access generally starts out as follows:

http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=

or

http://frwebgate.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/

An example of an address to a Congressional bill on GPO Access would be the one for H.R. 1714, as reported in the House from Committee:

http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=106_cong_bills&docid=f:h1714rh.txt

The document ID is listed at the top of the document and is found by running a search, it can also be deduced ahead of time with "f" standing for "find" "h1714" standing for "H.R. 1714", "rh" standing for "reported in the House" and "txt" standing for "text version".

To get the bill in portable document format (PDF - like the print version) simply substitute ".pdf" for ".txt" at the end of the URL as in

http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=106_cong_bills&docid=f:h1714rh.pdf

The document ID is listed at the top of the document and is found by running a search, it can also be deduced ahead of time with "f" standing for "find" "h1714" standing for "H.R. 1714", "rh" standing for "reported in the House" and "pdf" standing for "portable document format".

However, perhaps the easiest way to find a prespecified URL is by running a search, retrieving the desired document, blocking the URL given, and by using the edit/copy function on your browser and the edit/paste function on your document software, simply paste in the URL.

For instance under Congressional bills for the 106th Congress type in "H.R. 1714" (quotation marks required for phrases) in the space provided and one of the resulting hits is H.R. 1714 as reported in the House. The following is it's prespecified URL:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=
h1714rh.txt&directory=/disk3/wais/data/106_cong_bills

It does indeed differ from and is longer than the previous URL for H.R. 1714, but it works and the IP address "162.140.64.21" (or sometimes "162.140.64.88") stays the same throughout GPO Access.

The same bill text in portable document format (PDF), which looks like the printed version (this may require you to download Adobe Acrobat software), is at the following URL:

http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=
h1714rh.pdf&directory=/disk3/wais/data/106_cong_bills

Note: just insert pdf after "h1714rh" instead of txt.

The House Committee Report, H. Rept. 106-341, part 1, to accompany H.R. 1714 is at this URL:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=
hr341p1.106&directory=/disk2/wais/data/106_cong_reports

The same report in PDF can be obtained by just changing the first occurrence of "106" in the URL to "pdf" as follows:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=
hr341p1.pdf&directory=/disk2/wais/data/106_cong_reports

By using the above formula other House and Senate reports with different report numbers can be linked and obtained. You can also run a seacrch on GPO Access and obtain the same prespecified URLs. Be sure and use quotation marks around phrases such as "106-341". See http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/cong005.html.

Links to Public Laws on GPO Access

Finding direct prespecified links to public laws on GPO Access follows fairly much the same pattern as congressional bills on GPO Access.

For instance the prespecified URL for Public Law 106-229, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, enacted on June 30, 2000, is

http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=
106_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ229.106

Note the ending with "f:" (for find), publ (for Public Law), and 106-229 as the specific public law number (the 229th public law of the 106th Congress).

To get the PDF version (looks like the printed version) just add .pdf to the URL.

However, if you ran a search on GPO Access in the public laws section (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/index.html) for the 106^th Congress using "106-229" (quotation marks needed for phrases) you would come up with two other URLs that also work. One URL is in text format and the other is in PDF format. You could then just copy and paste the URLs into a document. See:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=
publ229.106&directory=/disk3/wais/data/106_cong_public_laws

The PDF version is at the following prespecified URL:

http://www.frwebgate.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=
publ229.pdf&directory=/diskb/wais/data/106_cong_public_laws

The PDF version can also be obtained by replacing the first occurance of "106" (stands for "106th Congress" and occurs just before "&directory") in the URL with "pdf".

By changing the numbers in the URL to match the public law number other public laws can be linked and obtained.

Links to the Congressional Record on GPO Access

When running searches for Congressional Record documents in GPO Access your results will only come back with temporary URLs, not prespecified ones. However, you can construct the direct prespecfied URL to a specific Congressional Record document with the document ID at the top of the temporary URL you are given. For instance the document containing the debate in the House on H.R. 1714 occuring on November 9, 1999 (one of three documents) is located at the following prespecified URL:

http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=1999_record&docid=cr09no99-75

with "cr09no99-75"; standing for the 75^th document ID given in the Congressional Record on the ninth day of November, 1999.

To see the PDF version (looks like the printed version) just add ".pdf" to the address as follows:

http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=1999_record&docid=cr09no99-75.pdf

Similar to running searches on the GPO Access Congressional Record database, running searches on the Federal Register database does not lead to a direct prespecified link, but the resulting temporary URL gives you the document ID at the top in which to construct one.

There are now prespecified links in GPO Access to individual titles, chapters, and sections of the United States Code 2000 Edition (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html) and you can obtain these URLs simply by browsing the United States Code by title then clicking further into various chapters and sections (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/browse.html). However, if you run a search looking for a particular section you will only obtain a temporary URL.

The first supplement to the 2000 Edition of the U.S. Code is not yet available and so regardless of what any page section may say, such as "Laws in effect as of January 7, 2003," the information on each page is only current as of January 2, 2001. More current information is available from the Office of Law Revision Counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives which is charged with the responsibility of producing the U.S. Code (http://uscode.house.gov/). The site also has U.S. Code Classification Tables that update the Code. However, the site does not have prespecified URLs to sections of the Code, but two other free sites which use the the Law Revision Counsel data do have such prespecified URLs. They are on the U.S. Code sites on Findlaw and on Cornell's Legal Information Institute. The currency of the material on the Findlaw site is clearly indicated on each page, but Cornell uses release date information from the Office of Law Revision Counsel which has little bearing on the actual currency of any particular section.