LibGuides: Free Legislative History: Committee Hearings, Reports, & Prints

Committee Links

GovInfo.gov
List of Congressional Committees that have hearings, reports, prints, or other documents available on GovInfo.
GovTrack.us - Committees
The Congressional Committees section of GovTrack.us will allow you to see information on members of the committee and the bills referred to a committee.

Committee Hearings

Committee Hearings are used by the committees to obtain information and opinions on proposed legislation, conduct an investigation, or evaluate a government department or implementation of laws. While the hearings can shed some insight, the witnesses call to testify will often represent a specific interest, which may or may not shed light on legislative intent.

U.S. House of Representatives Committee Repository
Locate hearings using the calendar back to 2009.
GovInfo.gov
Not all hearings are made available on GovInfo. GovInfo contains selected House and Senate hearings from the 85th - Current Congress (1957 - Present).
U.S. House of Representatives
Links to the House Committees. Because publication of hearings varies, it may be best for recent hearings to go to the individual committee's website.
U.S. Senate
Links to the Senate Committees. Because publication of hearings varies, it may be best for recent hearings to go to the individual committee's website.
C-SPAN
Locate video of recent hearings and bill markups from the House and Senate.

Committee Reports

Committee reports are seen as one of the most important and influential legislative history documents. Generally, if a chamber votes to recommend a bill to the full chamber, a report accompanies a bill, which members of the House and Senate will review. The report will often cover the background and need for legislation, cost estimate, constitutional authortiy statement, and a section-by-section analysis of the legislation.

Congress.gov
Searchable House and Senate Committee Reports from the 104th - Current Congress (1995 - Present).

Committee Prints

While prints can be a great source for statistical and historical information on a topic, they are viewed as internal background information for the committees to use whey they are considering a bill. For that reason, their public distribution can be sparse and vary amongst the committees.

GovInfo.gov
GovInfo contains committee prints that the house and senate committees have made available from the 94th Congress - Current Congress (1975 - Present).

Congressional Research Service Reports

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a nonpartisan department of the Library of Congress that provides policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate.