Government Information: Congressional Bills, Record and Hearings

The Congressional Record

The Congressional Record (CR), known by different names over time, is the official record of proceedings and debates of the United States Congress.

Bills - Tracking and Analysis

Find Hearings By Year

Portland State University offers access to U.S Congressional hearings online, in print and microfiche. Depending on the time period, hearings are available in multiple formats. If you a find a citation, but no full-text, don't stop there! Many hearings are available only in print or microfiche here and elsewhere in Summit. If you don't find what you're looking for, ask a librarian for details (links and contact information on the right.)

Tips for finding hearings in the library catalog:

  • All hearings have the author starting with the string "United States. Congress. [House or Senate]. Committee" (pick one house of Congress).
  • Try searching with Author plus the topic, popular name of a law (Example: "United States. Congress. House. Committee" AND ISTEA").

1997 to present

Indices and full text:

Hearings from this era are available in a variety of ways:

Location:

Hearings are located on the 4th floor in microfiche formats; paper copies can be requested from the offsite storage facility.

Note: Newer hearings are far more likely to be listed in the Library's catalog than older hearings.

 

July 1976 to 1996

Indices:

Many of these records are in the Library's catalog. Check the paper or online indices as well.

Location:

Hearings are located on the 4th floor in microfiche formats. Paper copies are located in Storage and can be requested.

1970 to June 1976

Indices:

Some of these records are indexed in the Library's catalog. Check the paper or online indices as well.

Location:

If we have copies of the hearings, they are most likely located in storage and can be requested.


December 1941 to 1969

Indices:

These are probably not in the Library's catalog. They are indexed in some reference works.

Location:

There is a low probability that PSU will have copies of these hearings. You might try Reed College and/or Multnomah County Library to check their records. University of Oregon and Oregon State University have older collections with holdings from the early 1900s.

Early 1800s to November 1941

Indices:

These are probably not in the Library's catalog. They are indexed in some reference works.

  • ProQuest Congressional - online database and full text of hearings from 1823 to 1979
  • CIS Congressional Committee Hearings Index - paper, located in Reference Z 1223 .A2 C6

Note: Congress did not have a significant number of published hearings prior to 1833.

Location:

There is a low probability that PSU will have copies of these hearings. You might try Reed College and/or Multnomah County Library to check their records. University of Oregon and Oregon State University have older collections with holdings from the early 1900s.

Congressional Committees

Members of Congress

Finding US Documents: SuDoc Call Numbers

Government Documents are assigned call numbers based on the agency or department printing the information, called the SuDoc Classification. It is a bit different from the regular Library of Congress or Dewey systems. Find the collection on the 4th Floor of the library. Can't find what you need? For assistance, ask at the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor or Ask Us Online