Congressional Research
Key Terms/Publications
Congressional Record: Official record of daily floor debates, agendas, and actions of Congress. Published daily when Congress is in session. Preceded by the Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, and Congressional Globe, which are available from The Library of Congress's A Century of Lawmaking
Serial Set: Consists of the congressional reports and documents of both chambers. Began publishing in 1817. Documents before that are in the American State Papers.
- Congressional reports originate from congressional committees and deal with proposed legislation and issues under investigation.
- Congressional documents originate from congressional committees and cover a wide variety of topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress, and annual reports of non-governmental organizations.
Committee Hearings: Held by committees of the House and Senate, sometimes by joint or special committees, to obtain information and opinions on proposed legislation, to investigate activities of a government department or to evaluate the implementation of federal law.
Committee Prints: Publications issued by committees for their own use. They may be research topics of particular interest to members of Congress or relevant to legislation that is being developed.
Finding a legislative history
- Legislative History:
Compilation of the documents related to the passage of a particular U.S. public law. Includes various versions of related bills, hearings, floor debates, etc.
- LexisNexis Congressional
Finding bills
- LexisNexis Congressional (full text, all bills, every stage) (101st Congress or 1989-present)
- Thomas (101st Congress or 1989-present)
- Digest of Public General Bills (1942-1990)
- Documents Area (outside Lynda's office).
- Gives summaries of many bills by year.
Finding hearings
Finding debates in Congressional Record
Finding your legislators or timely information
- Congress.org
- Congressional information site for those real world questions.
- Information on the election races for President, Congress and state offices.
- Provides contact information and issue positions for candidates and elected officials.
- Project Vote Smart
- Covers candidates and elected officials in five basic categories: biographical information, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and interest group ratings.
- CQ Weekly
- Covers United States congressional activity, as well as executive and judicial decisions that affect Congress.
- Includes summaries of committee work, investigations, hearings, debates, and votes.
More useful information
For more information, contact: Lynda Kellam, Data Services & Government Information Librarian
