Debates of Congress – The Congressional Record
The Congressional Record contains the verbatim transcript for the House and Senate. Members are allowed to “extend” their remarks and add material that has not actually been said on the floor of each chamber, and the printed text includes these extensions.
The Congressional Record (Bound edition) is divided into volumes that each corresponds to a session of congress. These volumes may consist of more than 20 parts with a bound index. The index is organized by subject and includes references to speeches or discussion by members of congress. It also includes a history of bills of each house with references to the text.
The Record appears in two editions: the Daily Edition and the Permanent Edition (Bound Edition). Although both are compiled by date, the Daily Edition (which is divided into House and Senate sections) is recompiled with extended remarks and repaginated for the Permanent Edition. There is no table that gives corresponding references between pages in the two editions (however, a Daily to Bound Conversion Table is available via Hein Online (shown in the Hein Online box below). As the Permanent Edition is usually five years behind the Daily Edition, it is common to find citations in cases, law review articles, and other current commentary to the Daily Edition. Once the Permanent Edition appears, however, the Daily Edition is discarded. This is problematic for finding a new citation in the Permanent Edition. One strategy for locating material that is unknown is to use the index for each congress. Another technique for converting citations is to search unique phrases and dates on Lexis or Westlaw to get the corresponding page reference from the search result. The Record has an Index (Congressional Record Index) that covers names, subjects, and bill numbers. For more information on the Congressional Record see About Congressional Record via GovInfo.gov.
Occasionally, the text of bills, and sometimes, reports, appear in the Record. This is the exception rather than the rule.
As mentioned above, The Record is on www.govinfo.gov (links to the Bound, Daily & Congressional Records Index are in one place - lower left column). The text is also on Lexis Advance and Westlaw Edge.
The predecessor publications to the Record (1873-present) are the Congressional Globe (1833-1873), the Register of Debates (1824-1837) and the Annals of Congress (1789-1823). Most libraries have copies of these, as well as early issues of the Record, on microform.
Access Hein Online via the Law Library's Database LIst (scroll down to "H" in this alpha list)
