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U.S. Congressional Publications

Introduction

U.S. Congressional publications appear in many forms including hearings, reports and prints, and have been organized in various ways over the years complicating locating them.

The official versions are published by the U. S. Government Printing Office (GPO). However, many private companies such as The Congressional Information Service (CIS) reprint Congressional publications on microfiche and online through the subscription databases Congressional Universe (LexisNexis).

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Types of Publications

All Congressional publications are created by either the entire House or Senate, a committee within either, or a joint House and Senate committee.

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Hearings

Hearings are records of testimonies, question/answer exchanges, and pertinent documents held before a House, Senate, or joint committee. There are three main types of hearings: legislative, oversight, and investigative. Some hearings are unpublished and remain unpublished according to schedules created by the House, Senate, or individual committees. Here are some general rules about the timeline for publication of the full text of hearings:

• Unpublished Senate hearings and other committee papers are closed for 20 years
• Unpublished House hearings and other records are closed for 30 years
• Investigative hearings in both the House and Senate are closed for 50 years
• A senator can insist that a proceeding in which he was a part be closed until his death, even if that exceeds the 20 years rule.

Unpublished simply means that the government has not officially published a hearing through the Government Printing Office. CIS has acquired and made available on microfiche of older unpublished hearings from transcripts, senators' repositories, and archives.

Reports

Reports are produced by House or Senate committees for the benefit of the House or Senate as a whole, such as findings of hearings or discussions of legislative intent.

Prints

Prints are generic documents produced by committees. They can be about anything a committee does or undertakes, such as draft legislation, statistics, and analyses.

Documents

Documents are published by the full chamber of either the House or Senate. They can include such things as vetoes, biannual reports on committee activities, and presidential messages on new legislation.

U.S. Serial Set / American State Papers

The U.S. Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports bound by session of Congress. It began publication with the 15th Congress, 1st Session (1817). In general, it includes: committee reports related to bills and other matters, presidential communications to Congress, treaty materials, certain executive department publications, and certain non-governmental publications. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, executive-branch materials were also included. The Serial Set used to be the definitive publication documenting the U.S. Government, but over the years it has become more selective in what it includes.

Documents before 1817, the first 14 congresses, were published as the American State Papers.

You can search the Serial Set separately in Congressional Universe, 1789-1969. All these documents are available full text online as well as on microfiche using the CIS number. .

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Finding Documents Using CIS Call Numbers

CIS call numbers contain information about the session date or year of Congress, the parent body (House or Senate), the particular committee, and type of publication. They are needed in order to locate the publication.

Locating CIS publications before 1970

1. Important: You must know the type of document for pre-1970 documents, e.g., House Hearing, Committee Print, Senate Unpublished Hearing; Group Number, if available (check long view if in UCAT); and the CIS call number.
2. Match the type of document with the correct color-coded microfiche cabinet in the CIS Room.
3. Find the correct session number of Congress.
4. Be sure you are in the correct area for House, Senate or Joint.
5. Look in order for the numerical or alphabetical part of your CIS call number, e.g., H2282-2
6. *Hearings supplements are arranged first by committee name and then by session of Congress.

Tip: It's a good idea to print out the citation page from either Congressional Universe or UCAT (long view), including complete information. Frequently just the CIS number is not sufficient for finding pre-1970 documents.

After 1970

1. Find the correct cabinet for the year of Congress in your citation.
2. Look for House, Senate, or Joint.
3. Look for your document in numerical order, e.g., H180-3.

Explanation of CIS call numbers

(90) H2282-2 (example from CIS Print Index)

90 = Session number of Congress

H = House

2282 = Accession number (look for this in numerical order)

2 = where the document begins on the microfiche

CIS 2001 S321-20 (example from UCAT)

2001 = Year of Congress

S = Senate

32 = Committee (the first two numbers represent a particular committee. See committee numbers for the list.)

1 = Type of document (the third number represents the type of document. See document numbers for the list)

20 = where the document begins on the microfiche

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Committee Numbers

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Document Numbers - 3rd number after H, S, or J in call number

0 = House or Senate Document or Special Publication

1 = Hearing

2 = Committee Print

3 = House or Senate Report

4 = Senate Executive Report

5 = Senate Treaty Document

Example: CIS 2001 H161-15

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Searching and Finding CIS and Congressional Documents

There are several indexes available to search for Congressional publications:

• Congressional Universe (UTSA subscription)
• UCAT, UTSA Catalog
• GPO Access (free from GPO)
• THOMAS (free from Library of Congress)

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Congressional Universe (UTSA subscription)

UTSA LIbrary subscribes to Congressional Universe a LexisNexis database containing a vast amount of government information, including U.S. Congressional publications. Some newer documents are available full text online as well as the Serial Set (1789-1969). There are a variety of ways to search, including by CIS Index Term (click the link to look at the subject list) and title. Use Advanced Search to search full text of documents or to search within a particular collection. Look for a link to the full text, e.g., "Full Text Available" or "Replica of original." If the full text is not available, be sure to copy or print out the information about the document found in the title section at the top, including CIS-NO, Source, Doc-Type, Date, and Cong-Sess. All full text is available on microfiche in the UTSA Library.

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UCAT

You can search for citations for some CIS documents published since 1970 in UCAT, the library's catalog. To search, use Advanced Search and enter a keyword or keywords, such as agriculture or "no-fly zone." Then, enter CIS in the second box. To search even more narrowly, you could add a type of document, such as hearing or report in the third search box. To find the full text of a document, click the link to the full text (the link will take you normally to the full text at GPO Access). If a link to full text is not available, copy or print the information regarding the document: title, call number, # of congress, and type of document. You may have to click "Long View" to see all of this information. Then, look for the document on microfiche in Room 2.01.12C. If the document is newer than 1995, you may be able to locate it full text in Congressional Universe.

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GPO Access

The United States Government Printing Office (GPO) publishes the official full text of many Congressional hearings, reports, prints, and documents online. Under GPO Access Resources by Branch, choose Legislative Resources by the document type. In general, there is full text availability back to 1997. GPO Access is listed under Databases A-Z on the library's homepage. From the same page, you can also search the GPO Catalog for government publications with links to information free from the government.

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THOMAS: legislative Information on the Internet

A service of the Library of Congress, THOMAS has comprehensive information about the U.S. Congress, including recent bills and legislation. THOMAS also has links to individual House and Senate committee websites and their publications and hearings. Dates of coverage compare with GPO Access, so that, in general, full text will be available for documents later than 1997.

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CIS Print Indexes

The CIS Print Indexes can be used to search for Congressional publications through 1998. The print indexes are shelved in the JPL Reference Stacks, and include:

• CIS Index to Unpublished US House of Representatives Committee Hearings (1833 - 1972) KF40 .C54
• CIS Index to Unpublished US Senate Committee Hearings (1823 - 1980) KF40 .C55
• CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index (1833 - 1969) KF40 .C56
• CIS US Congressional Committee Prints Index: from the earliest publications through 1969 KF40 .C65
• CIS Index Annual (1970 - 1998) KF49 .C62
• CIS U.S. Serial Set Index Z1223 .Z9C65 1975

To obtain the full text of documents, copy down the title, call number, number of congress, and type of document. You will need this information to locate the document on microfiche in Room 2.01.12C. Because of the different ways over the years that CIS documents have been organized, you may have to convert the number of congress to year or vice-versa. For example, if you have located a document with a date of 1969 and no session number, you will have to find out what session date of Congress that year corresponded with. In some cases, filing cards in the microfiche cabinets display both year and session number. You can also visit this site to do the conversion: Session Dates of Congress. If the document is newer than 1995, it may be available full text from Congressional Universe.

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Citing CIS Documents

MLA Format

Example, from microfiche:

United States. Cong. Senate. Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property, and Nuclear Safety of the Committee on Environmental and Public Works. Hearing on the Clean Air Act: Incentive-Based Utility Emissions reductions. 106th Cong., 2nd sess. Washington: GPO, 2001.

Example, from Congressional Universe:

United States. Cong. Senate. Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property, and Nuclear Safety of the Committee on Environmental and Public Works. Hearing on the Clean Air Act: Incentive-Based Utility Emissions. 106th Cong., 2nd sess. Washington: GPO, 2001. Congressional Universe. LexisNexis. The University of Texas at San Antonio Library. 12 February 2004 < http://web.lexis-nexis.com>.

Example of in-text citation:

In a hearing held before the United States Senate on the Clean Air Act, representatives from several federal agencies testified to the need for environmental reform (15).

APA Format

Example, from microfiche:

Clean Air Act: incentive-based utility emissions reductions: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property, and Nuclear Safety of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, United States Senate, 106th Cong., 2 (2001).

Example, from Congressional Universe:

Clean Air Act: incentive-based utility emissions reductions: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property, and Nuclear Safety of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, United States Senate, 106th Cong., 2 (2001). Retrieved February 12, 2004, from Congressional Universe database.

Example of in-text citation:

(Clean Air Act, 2001)

See also the UTSA Subject Guide, Citing in APA and MLA Formats.

For more information on government publications, see also the UTSA Subject Guides: U.S. Government Information, and Government Documents.