Political Science: National

• US Census Bureau.  The Census Bureau's website (data.census.gov) is a gold mine of information.  Population, housing, age, income, education levels, and much else is here.  For example, although Portland is often called the "White-est big city in the United States" 23% of the city's population is people of color, and 14% were born overseas. Of all residents under 65, 9.4% have a disability. Women make up 66% of the civilian labor force.
• Congressional Research Service Reports Congressional Research Service reports are reports written for members of Congress. They cover a wide range of issues, and are organized by topic.
• National Conference of State Legislatures A nicely-done website that can be used to generate ideas for reports (see the "News" tab), or guide you to more detailed websites about many issues (hunting, child-safety laws), etc., on the "Issues" tab.
• Public Agenda A good non-partisan (that is, they don't favor one party over the other) website that tries to get out information on all sorts of issues - for example: school reform and the federal debt. The "Issue Guides" give pro-con arguments on various subjects, such as the Right to Die, Abortion, and Immigration.

2024 is an important election year, both locally and nationally. Here are some resources to help you make sense of it.

• USAspending.gov From the Office of Management and Budget, this site complies with a law requiring transparency in federal funding. Go to the "Summaries" page for starters. There are also tabs for the top recipients of federal money, and spending by state. Go to Explore the Data to browse through Government spending.
• Internet Snooping by Governments. (Big business, too.) Google's annual 'transparency' report on government requests for information and efforts to suppress internet content. (All governments, not just US) There are links to such requests by country.
• Congress.gov  Terrific compilation of stuff about bills, laws, committee hearings, voting by specific members of Congress, and other stuff too much to mention.
• Maplight: Follow the Money
  A site that shows contributions made to elected officials. 
• Federal Digital System (fdsys) from the Government Printing Office. The comprehensive guide to all government publications, including committee hearings, code of federal regulations, and about anything else you can think of.
• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States  These are papers and speeches as issued by the Presidents' Press Secretaries. 
• United States House of Representatives ('Thomas' Website.) Find the text of bills, federal law, debates, and all things related to law-making.
• United States Senate History of the senate, oral histories, Senate traditions, and more.
• White House The official website. Speeches, photos, and all sorts of stuff on the prez.

Films on Demand, a streaming video service has over 1000 videos on the American government.

HeinOnline - browse court cases (federal, state, and local), read law journals, look up legislative materials.