Reports

Congress has organized itself into committees with different subject areas of jurisdiction.  When a bill is introduced, it is usually referred to one or more committees with jurisdiction over the subject of the proposed legislation.  In general, the committee chair calls legislation for committee consideration, by considering the bill as it was introduced, with amendments, and in some cases, substituting entirely different text.  This is referred to as the mark-up process.  Once the committee finishes with the bill, it writes a Report and the bill awaits action on the floor of the particular chamber.

Reports are issued by each chamber and designated by congress and then a consecutive number.  For example, House Report 105-179 is the 179th report issued by a house committee in the 105th congress.  Reports are issued individually as individual paper volumes.  Later, they are compiled into the Serial Set, which collects all house and senate reports, documents and miscellaneous documents in numerical order.  The Serial Set extend back to the early 1800's.  Most libraries that have a significant government document collection will have the serial set in paper (most current issues) and in microform.  The collection of Congressional documents that precedes the Serial Set is known as American State Papers.

Congressional reports are on  https://www.govinfo.gov/help/crpt back to the 104th congress (approximately 1995) in PDF and plain text formats (see About Congressional Reports for more information).  Reports usually contain a section-by-section analysis of the text, along with views of the majority and minority committee members.  Reports may also contain as appendices reproductions of items that are relevant to the consideration of the legislation.

Another type of report is the conference report.  When both houses of congress pass legislation where the language is not identical, there is usually a conference held to work out the differences between the chambers.  Members from the House and Senate are appointed to a conference committee that attempts to negotiate common language for the act.  It is then sent back to the floor of the House and Senate for an up or down vote.  No amendments may be made at this point.  The conference committee will issue a conference report.  This report will be printed as either a house or senate report, and does not have any special numbering that identifies it as a conference report. 

Selected edited committee reports are in the United States Code, Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN) for most public laws since 1941.  This compilation is available on Westlaw Edge back to that date.  Full text for selected material is available in Proquest Congressional and on Lexis.  Westlaw Edge also has a legislative history database for selected acts of congress.

The Serial Set Index from CIS indexes the Serial Set from its beginning through 1969.  Coverage past that point is taken over by the CIS Annual Volumes in paper & Proquest Congressional (see Congressional Information Service (CIS) Tab in this Libguide) online.

Access Hein Online via the Law Library's Database List