Research Guides: NRS Year 1 and Year 2 Research Support: Find health policy legislation

Find legislation

Oregon State Legislature
Find bills (also called legislation) and Oregon laws (also called statutes) on the Oregon State Legislature's website. Subscribe to receive email updates as bills move through the legislative process. Learn how to find a bill. To get research help or if you have questions about the legislature, legislative process, or other government agencies, email help.leg@oregonlegislature.gov, or call 1-800-332-2313.
Congress.gov
The official website for US federal legislative information. Features and content include: bills and resolutions, the Congressional Record, committee reports, committee materials, Congressional debates, information on treaties, and a lot more. Formerly THOMAS.
How to find specific legislation using Congress.gov
LegiScan
An open access database that monitors current legislation in all 50 states, as well as the U.S. Congress. The database will track state legislation and provide a list of the most viewed and monitored bills as well as an overview of past legislative sessions. Requires you register for a free account to use their legislative data and tracking services.

Find information ABOUT legislation

Many agencies and organizations evaluate and share background and contextual information about health care policy legislation, especially those sponsoring—or work with folks highly impacted by—the legislation.

Search directly on agency / organization webpages; or, use Google and the agency / organization base URL.

How? Use site:.[domain] as a command to search within a general type of agency or specific organization's website.
- Search within government agencies' websites: site:.gov
- Search within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's website: site:ahrq.gov
- Search within college and university websites: site:.edu
- Search within Clackamas Community College's website: site:clackamas.edu
Why? Google may offer a better search engine with a more complex search algorithm.
Beware of shady or inaccurate websites. Check the organization's URL to make sure you are on the official organization's website.

Legislative Policy and Research Office (LPRO)
LPRO provides nonpartisan public policy research, analysis, and development. Scroll down to "Publications by Policy Area" and select "Health Care."

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
AHRQ supports research designed to improve the quality of health care, reduce its cost, and broaden access to essential services.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
CBO provides Congress with objective, timely, nonpartisan analysis needed for economic and budget decisions and with the information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process.
Government Accountability Office (GAO)
GAO examines matters relating to the receipt and disbursement of public funds, performs audits, and evaluates Government programs and activities. Go to "Reports & Testimonies" and filter by date, topic and agency.
Office of Health Policy (HP)
Advises the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on policy development in health, disability, human services, data, and science. Scroll down for "Topics" and "Reports."

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
Primary function is to support, equip, and advocate for state and territorial health officials on the impact and formation of public or private health policy.
KFF (formerly Kaiser Family Foundation)
Non-partisan source for health policy research, polling, and journalism for policymakers, the media, the health policy community, and the public.
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
Tracks legislation and provides bipartisan policy research (briefs, special reports, news) by issue area.

Identify relevant CINAHL headings related to health policy.

Select CINAHL Subject Headings in the banner at the top of the page.
Enter your search term* and select Browse.
Your results will be a list of official terms (not articles).
Select the boxes next to relevant terms.
Check the subheadings for even more relevant terms!
Select Search Database to find articles about the terms you selected.

*Suggested terms to use when searching for official CINAHL headings:

policy
health policy
legislation
jurisprudence
government

CINAHL Plus (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window

Citing legislation

APA 7 NRS-110 Citation Examples - Google Doc
See the "APA Examples" section for information about citing legislation (bills) and laws (statutes).