Once again, the Library of Congress has put together an outstanding resource. THOMAS provides access to full text legislative information, but also is an excellent educational resource, offering loads of information about the legislative process.
THOMAS, like GPO Access, has full text legislation from the 103rd & 104th Congresses, as well as full text of the Congressional Record from the 103rd and 104th Congresses. It also contains the latest Congressional Directory information, as well as e-mail addresses for the House members. Both the legislation and Congressional Record can be searched using keywords, and can be limited to particular sections or members.
A keyword search for "family medical leave act" in legislative information for the 103rd Congress took less than 60 seconds. Results were ranked by order of relevancy. Clicking on any line from the resulting list took me to the full text. A download option (it appears as a hypertext link) issued an ftp command and the full text file was downloaded to my hard disk. Be warned: you can't stop this proccess. I clicked on it, and it immediately dumped a 78K file on my hard disk. A search in the Congressional Record for the 104th Congress on "contract with america" yielded similar results and options. Instructions are provided on search techniques .
Future enhancements, which include adding Bill Digest files, bill summaries, and making it possible to compile legislative histories, will only add to an already rich source for legislative information. I give THOMAS high marks for a clear and intuitive layout. First-time users should have no trouble navigating through the options offered and getting the information they need.
Access is provided to C-SPAN, Senate and House servers, as well as to the Library of Congress Web page, and LC Marvel (the Library of Congress gopher).
The opening graphic is not large, and the rest of the page is text, so loading time is usually fairly fast. Usage is high, and access may be difficult at peak use times (I find those times to be from around 9AM-12PM PST).