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Testing on New /e/ | U.S. Congressional Documents - Print and Online Sources

I. HOUSE AND SENATE BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS

Legislation is introduced as either a bill or a resolution. Bills and resolutions are printed when introduced into each house and when reported out of regular committees. Amendments are usually printed. Bills amended on the floor immediately prior to final passage and bills sent to the President after a conference committee are not distributed to the public.

Enacted bills can be identified in the Statutes at Large. All bills relating to an enacted public law are indexed in the CIS Index Legislative History volumes. Every bill introduced introduced is indexed in the Congressional Record.

Citation should include: number, Congress, session and date. Example: H.R. 136, 79th Cong., 1st Sess. (1945).

HOUSE AND SENATE REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

Reports are usually submitted by a committee to the full chamber, and give either a recommendation on a bill or the results of a special study. A report on a bill includes a section-by-section analysis of the bill and a cost estimate for implementation, as well as the committee's recommendations on amendments and passage.

Conference Reports from conference committees (appointed to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions of a bill) list the sections under discussion and state the version (House or Senate) that was accepted. Conference Reports are printed in the Congressional Record and as House and Senate Reports in thDIGNITY AND LIBERTY:e Serial Set. Formerly they were printed as House Reports and Senate Documents.

Documents are usually reprints of documents presented to Congress, not documents generated by Congress. They include presidential messages recommending legislation, reports required by law from executive departments and from non-governmental agencies, and studies made for Congress.

Since 1970, reports and documents are indexed in the CIS Index. Reports and Documents published before 1970 are indexed in the CIS U.S. Serial Set Index. They may also be identified using the CCH Congressional Index and the Congressional Record.

Reports and Documents are cited by number, Congress, session and date. Example: H. Rept. No. 353, 82d Cong., 1st Sess. (1951). They may be informally designated by Congress and by Report or Document number. Example: S. Rept. 95-130. Citations to Reports before 1907 and Documents before 1881 must include the session number.

III. HOUSE AND SENATE HEARINGS

Most hearings are held by Congressional Committees and Sub-committees to obtain background information on pending legislation, but some are held for investigative purposes. Hearings on pending legislation may take place years before the legislation is enacted into law, and many continue for several years. Transcripts of some hearings are published immediately, others are not published until long after the hearing was held, and some are not published at all.

Published hearings include oral testimony, written statements of witnesses, exhibits, studies, article reprints, and texts of bills being considered.

Hearings are indexed in the CIS Index (1970-present), which provides abstracts and complete bibliographical information. Older hearings (1833-1969) are indexed in the CIS Congressional Committee Hearings Index (1833 - 1969). Hearings can also be located through the Monthly Catalog (1941 to present) and the Documents Catalog (1893-1940), although these indexes are less comprehensive and do not contain abstracts. Unpublished hearings, from 1823 through 1964, are indexed in the CIS Index to Unpublished United States Senate Hearings.

Citations should include the black letter title, subtitle with bill number (if any), and name of subcommittee and committee, Congress, session, and date. Example: Discrimination on the Basis of Pregnancy, 1977: Hearings on S. 995 before the Subcommittee on Labor of the Senate Committee on Human Resources, 95th Congress, 1st Session (1977).

IV. COMMITTEE PRINTS

Prints are reports or studies done by an agency or by the committee staff for committee members. Prints give information to the committee on pending legislation or on other topics of interest. Prints are for internal use and are distributed to committee members. Their quality varies and their value to a Legislative history depends upon how influential the print was in the committee decision.

Since 1970, prints are indexed in CIS Index; older prints are indexed in the CIS Index to US Congressional Committee Prints (at Regenstein Reference).

Citation: Citations to committee prints should include the institutional author, the Congress, and session, title and date. Example: Staff of Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 81st Cong., 2nd Session, Report on Antitrust Law (Comm. Print 1950).

V. SENATE TREATY DOCUMENTS, EXECUTIVE DOCUMENTS AND EXECUTIVE REPORTS

Senate Treaty Documents are presidential messages to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about treaties, protocols and agreements. They are numbered sequentially through an entire Congress. They are indexed in the CIS Index and the Monthly Catalog.

Before 1981, these documents were known as Senate Executive Documents. They were assigned letters, rather than numbers. They are formally cited by letter, Congress, session and date. Example: S. Exec. Doc. B, 92d Cong., lst Sess. (1971). They are sometimes cited informally as follows: Exec. Doc. B, 92-1.

Senate Executive Reports are reports from Senate committees which consider ratification of treaties or that confirm presidential nominations. An example of a formal citation is: S. Exec. Rep. No. 10, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. (1977).

Executive Reports and Documents are confidential until expressly released by the Senate. Prior to the 97th Congress (1981), they were not reprinted in the Serial Set. Since 1970, Executive Reports and Documents have been indexed in CIS Index; before 1970, use the CIS Index to U.S. Senate Executive Documents and Reports (at Regenstein). They are also indexed in the Monthly Catalog. (Do not confuse the modern Senate Executive Documents with the series of House and Senate Executive Documents published from 1847 to 1895.)

VI. DEBATES

A. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

The Congressional Record provides a verbatim record of the debates of Congress, but members have the right to revise and "extend" their remarks. Starting in 1978, a black dot is used to identify statements or insertions that were not spoken by the member on the floor. The Congressional Record indicates all action taken, records all Presidential correspondence with Congress, and reprints many major bills and a few Reports (including all Conference Reports). The "Appendix" or "Extension of Remarks" contains extensions of floor remarks, reprints of periodical articles, presidential and agency messages and agency and commission reports.

The Congressional Record is printed every day Congress is in session and includes a Daily Digest of floor action and committee meetings. It is indexed every two weeks. The index includes a subject and name index and a "History of Bills and Resolutions" arranged by bill or resolution number.

The daily Congressional Record cumulates into a bound edition with a cumulative index volume and a separate Daily Digest volume. The pagination differs between the daily and bound edition of the Congressional Record.

B. PRECURSORS TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

Annals of Congress (1789-1824) (J11.D). This is a record of debates and an abstract of the proceedings. It is not a verbatim account and was compiled in 1834 from old newspapers. There are separate indexes for the House and Senate for each session. Note that there were different printings, with varying pagination.

Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791. A new and more comprehensive record of debates, journals, and legislative histories of the First Congress. Check the Library Catalog for titles and call numbers.

Register of Debates (1824-1873) (J11.D1). This publication contains only abstracts of debates. It has separate indexes for the House and Senate for each session. Volumes are labelled Congressional Debates on the spine.

Congressional Globe (1833-1873) (J11.G). This publication started as abstracts of debates and changed to a verbatim record. There are separate indexes for the House and Senate for each session. Some are on microfilm.

VIII. HOUSE AND SENATE JOURNALS

These publications record the proceedings of each house. They include all motions and votes, but they do not record debates. There is one volume for each house for each session of Congress. Each volume has a subject index and a bill number index. The Journal indexes are useful when trying to use the precursors to the Congressional Record.

PUBLIC LAWS

Slip laws are the first printed form of an enacted law. They are designated as either a public law or a private law and are numbered by Congress and by a law number which is assigned consecutively for each series through each Congress. Example: P.L. 94-171.

Statutes at Large is the official permanent government compilation of all laws enacted in each session of Congress, replacing slip laws. Public laws are printed in Chronological order. Presidential proclamations, reorganization plans and concurrent resolutions are also included. Until 1950 treaties were printed in the Statutes at Large.

Statutes at Large gives the date of approval of each law, and since 1903, also gives the original bill number. From 1963 to 1974 there is a table, "Guide to Legislative History of Public Laws" in each volume. Since 1975, a summary of legislative history for each public law is printed after the text of the law. This legislative history does not include references to hearings.

Citation: Since 1957, all laws have been assigned only a public or private law number. A citation should include the name of the act, public law number, Statutes at Large volume number and page and year. Example: National Environment Policy Act of 1969, Pub. L. 91-190, 83 Stat. 852 (1970). Before 1957, all laws were numbered consecutively by chapter, but were also assigned consecutive public or private law numbers from 1902 to 1956; citations should include the name of the act, chapter number, volume and page of Statutes at Large, and year.

There is some delay in the publication of Statutes at Large, but two commercial reprints, the U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News, (U.S.C.C.A.N.) and the United States Code Service Public Laws pamphlets publish new public laws, with their Statutes at Large pagination, within about a month of passage.

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