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Law Journal Staff: A Research & Policy Guide

A guide for the staff of the Catholic University Law Review and the Catholic University Journal of Law & Technology.

Finding Congressional Docs

Most, but not all, Congressional documents are available in a citable form through the various online, microform (located on the 3rd floor), and hard-copy resources of the Law Library.

The majority of recent (1995 - present) publications can be obtained full-text in pdf, citable form from the GovInfo website.  Please note that very recent material may not be available yet.  The Congress.gov website is a very useful index to Congressional material from 1989 to the present, and can be used to help identify a congressional document prior to retrieving it on the GovInfo website.

The Law Library subscribes to ProQuest Congressional, a database that indexes Congressional material dating back to the 1st Congress (1789). ProQuest Congressional also provides access to full text, pdf, citable versions of certain Congressional documents. 

HeinOnline has recently released the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in full-text digital form.  While this is an ongoing project, there is already a vast amount of Congressional documents including House and Senate reports, House and Senate documents, and a variety of other papers ordered by Congress.  Coverage includes 1817-date. 

Congressional Content

The table below provides a simplistic overview of the available sources for citable versions of select Congressional documents.  This table does NOT represent all Congressional material available through the Law Library, nor does it account for variations in coverage between sessions of Congress.

 

HeinOnline

ProQuest Congressional

GovInfo

Committee Reports

1817-Present

1789-1969

1995-Present

Committee Hearings

Varies

1980-Varies

1995-Present

Committee Prints

X

X

1997-Present

Congressional Record

1873-Present

X

1994-Present

Congressional Bills

X

1989-Present

1993-Present

Additional Resources

The following library guides provide additional information which may be helpful when researching Congressional information.