Congressional Research Service Reports

• Introduction
• News
• Guides
• Internet Sources
• Commercial Sources
• More Information About the Congressional Research Service

Introduction

The Congressional Research Service (a division of the Library of Congress) provides high-quality research and analysis for members of Congress. The reports, studies, and issue briefs CRS staff create are succinct and well-researched and many are regularly updated.

For many years, these reports were only available through commercial subscriptions or by contacting individual members of Congress. CRS did not print or distribute the reports to libraries. Today, scores of CRS reports are available on the Internet.

This guide identifies online, print, and microfilm sources of CRS reports.

News

On March 20, 2007, the Director of the Congressional Research Service this week prohibited all public distribution of CRS products without prior approval from senior agency officials. The Federation of American Scientists has posted a copy of the memo.

Guides

• University of Michigan Documents Center, Federal Government Resources, Legislative Branch, Congressional Research Service Reports. Links to a variety of sources providing the text of CRS reports (including many sources listed below).
• Debra L. Atkins, "Tracking Down Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports Easily," Law Library Lights, Vol. 46, No. 2, Winter 2002, at 28.
• LLRX, Stephen Young, CRS Reports. 

Internet Sources

In June 2005, the University of North Texas Libraries announced the availability of a digital library of CRS reports from 1990 to date. Users may browse the collection by topic or conduct searches for words and phrases. That same month, the Center for Democracy & Technology unveiled its OpenCRS website, with more than 8,000 documents. This site provides access to previously acquired reports from the Federation of American Scientists, the IP Mall at Franklin Pierce Law Center, the National Library for the Environment, and the Thurgood Marshall Law Library.

No freely available index to CRS reports is on the Internet, but zFacts provides a Google-powered search tool for more than 1000 CRS reports.

Other free sites with large collections include:

• The Federation of American Scientists website contains reports on conventional weapons systems, foreign policy and regional affairs, homeland security, intelligence, the Middle East, national security, nuclear weapons and arms control, secrecy and information policy, space policy, terrorism, and related topics.
• National Library for the Environment, Congressional Research Service Reports provides more than 1400 reports on environmental topics. Arranged by topic and searchable by keyword.
• U.S. State Department, Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and Issue Briefs provides reports from June 1999 to date on issues such as national security, foreign assistance, foreign relations, nuclear proliferation, and other international topics.
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Smaller collections include:

• The Memory Hole mirrors copies of the CRS reports formerly available at House of Representatives websites.
• Libraries of the University of California, Congressional Research Service Reports contains more than 200 reports. Arranged alphabetically, chronologically, and by report number. Searchable.

By Subject

In addition to the sites listed above, several libraries and other organizations provide online copies of selected CRS reports on specific subjects.

Subject

Source

Agriculture & issues

National Agricultural Law Center