Congressional Report in the United States

Congressional Report

Legislative Definition of Congressional Report

This Congressional concept is provided by the United States Congress website as a a basic reference document: Congressional reports originate from congressional committees and deal with proposed legislation or issues under investigation. Congress issues different types of reports, including committee reports, conference reports and executive reports.

More about the legislative meaning of Congressional Report

Congressional reports may be issued by the House or Senate. Depending on the chamber of origin, report citations begin with the Congress number during which it was issued and either H. Rpt. or S. Rpt., and an accession number (e.g., 112 H. Rpt. 1). Congressional reports are compiled in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.

Congressional Reports Legal Materials

Congressional Reports are prepared by Congressional Committees to explain their findings and recommendations on issues related to a particular bill. Congressional Reports are available from many sources, including:

(a) FDsys and Congress.gov, which post Reports free starting with the 104th Congress (1995-96).

(b) Private vendors including:

Lexis, starting 1990 (LEGIS;CMTRPT) – pull reports using the format “H Rpt 103-213”; PLUS you can go back to 1777 in the U.S. Serial Set (discussed below);
Westlaw, staring 1948 (LH) – you can pull reports using the format “s rep 94-75” or “hr rep 102-38” or “hr conf rep 101-386 for Conference Reports;
Bloomberg Law starting 1995;
ProQuest Congressional, starting 1991 (basic subscription), with add-on Serial Set subscription covering 1789-1969;
CQ Roll Call starting 1989 and
HeinOnline, if you have the add-on U.S. Congressional Documents Library subscription.

(c) The United States Congressional Serial Set and American State Papers — for Reports all the way back to 1777. The Serial Set and American State Papers are available in print in depository libraries and electronically through Lexis, ProQuest Congressional, the Library of Congress and Readex. For details, see the “United States Congressional Serial Set” and “American State Papers” entries. Note: If you have the Report Number and a year from 1777 through 1969, you can pull up the Report from the Lexis Serial Set Archive database using one of the formats: “DOC-NO(s. rpt. 91-874)” or “DOC-NO(s rp 874) and date is 1964” (for Senate Report 874 from 1964).

(d) Pre-compiled Legislative Histories. Reports are included in the various legislative histories that legislative librarians have compiled. These include a collection compiled by the GAO covering thousands of bills that is now available through Westlaw. For more information, see “Federal Legislative Histories.”

(e) The U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN), which publishes at least one report (if Congress wrote one) for each Public Law enacted. Starts 1948. USCCAN is available on Westlaw (USCCAN).

(f) The Government Printing Office (GPO). The GOP publishes and sells Reports as individual volumes through the U.S. Government Bookstore. Alternatively, you can call the GPO Bookstore in Washington (202-512-1800).

If the Report was issued since July 1976, you can look it up in the GPO’s onlineCatalog of U.S. Government Publications. The Catalog will tell you which depository libraries received that report, so you can either go or call for copies.

(g) Tax-related reports are available through Westlaw back to 1948 (FTX-LH), Tax Analysts’ Federal Research Library back to 1981, RIA’s Checkpoint back to the 104th Congress (1995-1996), and Wolter Kluwer’s Intelliconnect back to 1954 (all three services available by subscription-only).

Researching Reports: To find Congressional Reports on a particular subject, you can –

(b) Search by keyword in any of the online databases discussed above.(b) Look in the CIS/Index to Congressional Publications and Public Laws, which indexes Congressional materials 1970 to last year. The CIS/Index is available in hard copy in some large law libraries, on Lexis (LEGIS;CISINX) and on ProQuest Congressional. The CIS/Historical Index on Lexis(LEGIS;CISHST) covers 1789-1980.

(c) Look in the CIS U.S. Serial Set Index, in hard copy or on CIS’s Congressional Masterfile I CD-ROM. If you don’t have access to these, you should be able to get copies from the Serial Set Index from a document delivery service that works from a Federal Depository Library.

(d) Search by keyword in the GPO’s online Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, which goes back to July 1976. This can be a good no-cost way to look up Hearing titles, SuDoc numbers, publication dates, etc.

(d) Look through the print indexes to the GPO’s Monthly Catalog of Government Publications. The print Monthly Catalog goes back to 1895 which is great for coverage, but you can end up looking through a lot of annual indexes unless you’re looking for a particular year. You can speed up the process if you can access a copy of the Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, 1900-1971 and/or United States Government Publications, Monthly Catalog: Quinquennial Cumulative Personal Author Index, 1941-1975.

Congressional Research Service Reports

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a division of the Library of Congress that prepares reports for members and committees of the U.S. Congress.

Legal Materials

Sources for free CRS Reports include:

Open CRS, which makes a large number of CRS Reports available and searchable free of charge;
The University of North Texas;
The Federation of American Scientists
Indiana University’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports page;
The LLSDC Sourcebook
Congressional Docs, which is free at least as long as the Beta Test is still going on;
The collection compiled by Stanford University’s Social Sciences Research Group; and/or
The office of the Senator or Representative who requested the report.

Subscription sources for CRS Reports include:

Bloomberg Law, 2011-present (subscription only);
The ProQuest Congressional Research Digital Collection, 1916-present (subscription required or call 800-638-8380 to order individual documents);
CQ’s CRS Reports database, which provides both CRS Reports and CRS Electronic Briefing Books (subscription only).

Sources for CRS reports that charge a fee include:

Penny Hill Press (301-229-8229);
Bloomberg BNA Research & Custom Services (formerly BNA Plus)(703-341-3287 or research@bna.com);
The FTX-CRS database on Westlaw for selected tax-related reports, 1989-present.

For more information about CRS Reports, see the Open CRS Frequently Asked Questions and/or Stephen Young’s Guide to CRS Reports on the Web (LLRX 2006).

Congressional Report

Congressional Report in the United States