The Library of Congress > Blogs > Law Library > The Experimental Congress.gov Browser Extension has been Updated
The Experimental Congress.gov Browser Extension has been Updated
March 18, 2019 by Robert Brammer
The experimental Congress.gov browser extension created by Syed Tanveer has been updated so the current legislation feature now defaults to the 116th Congress. Also, the drop-down menu can now search for text that you highlight in CRS Reports, the U.S. Code, and the eCFR.
The browser extension does two things. First, if you highlight a citation to a bill on a webpage (ex. H.R.1), the browser extension will redirect you to the bill with that citation, in the current Congress, on Congress.gov.
In addition, you can use the extension to highlight text on a webpage and search for that text in Congress.gov. Just highlight some text, click the dome button in the top-right hand corner of your browser, and you can use the drop-down menu to search for that text in Congress.gov or in CRS Reports (a collection that now includes new content), the U.S. Code, or the eCFR. For example, you might highlight "John McCain" on a webpage, click on the dome icon, and then choose "members" in the drop-down menu to search for Senator John McCain's member profile page in Congress.gov.
Using the Congress.gov browser extension to search for John McCain in the member profile collection in Congress.gov. First highlight the text, then click on the dome icon, then choose a collection to search from the menu.
To install the extension, follow these steps:
1. Download this zip file and open it.
2. In Chrome, enter chrome://extensions into the search bar.
3. Turn on developer mode.
4. Click 'Load unpacked extension'.
5. Select the folder created when you opened the zip file.
6. If downloaded successfully, you'll see a dome icon appear in the tray next to your browser search bar.
The Law Library continues to need your feedback on this project. We would like to know whether this makes accessing primary source legislative data more convenient for you, and which features you would like to see added to the extension in the future. We also need feedback on bugs you encounter. Please be as specific as possible with your bug reports so they can be replicated. Please provide feedback to [email protected].
Posted in: Law Library
E Grant
Very convenient to access the sources of information from an icon on the browser bar.