The Major Legislation link on the THOMAS homepage is a "short cut" to direct you to bills that have undergone floor action, been the subject of hearings or debate in Congress, or that have received media attention. They are selected by legislative analysts in the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress. Major Legislation is not a comprehensive list of legislation.

There is, naturally, some element of subjectivity in any process of selection, so you may not find what you are looking for here. If you can't find your bill listed here, return to the THOMAS homepage and select files for the current Congress under either Bill Summary & Status or Bill Text to do a search on your topic. These files DO reflect a comprehensive list of all legislation.

The most popular section in Major Legislation is By topic. The topics listed are drawn from 80 "Top Terms" -- very broad subject categories from the Legislative Indexing Vocabulary (LIV). If you do not see the topic you have in mind in the list presented in the By topic link, look for an alternative term that might also describe the topic you are researching, or search Bill Summary & Status or Bill Text using your word(s).

Keep in mind that items are added to the topic list as a legislative session progresses. That is, not all possible topics are displayed on the list at the beginning of a Congress. Topics are added as bills touching that topic are deemed of major interest.